Caroline Frost

'Case Histories' Episode 1 Review - Jason Isaacs Back As Kate Atkinson's Flawed Hero Jackson Brodie

2013-05-19T16:25:35-04:00

Sunday night saw the return of Jason Isaacs in crowd-pleasing form as Jackson Brodie, the flawed hero of Kate Atkinson's 'Case Histories' series.

Here, like Atkinson's earlier tales, were three intertwining stories - the first a case presented to Jackson, Philip Marlowe style, by a comely lady looking for her past, the second a retired police offer finding herself in a pickle after spontaneously buying a child in a public car park and, as ever, Jackson's own internal demons.

Jason Isaacs was back in action as beleaguered private investigator Jackson Brodie

For a private investigator, he had a few questions to answer himself - where he'd been when he told everyone he was in New Zealand, why he hadn't bothered phoning his lady friend, a suitably indignant Louise, in all that time, why he remained equally indignant when she'd given up and decided to marry someone else...

As we're used to with Atkinson's tales, the present was invariably wrapped up with the past, leaving Jackson, as customarily, to shake his head at the strangeness of folk, and somehow remain compassionate despite being foiled into first a tragic sting, and then a solid beating in a case of mistaken identity.

One man and his dog... even if Jackson was doing his best to give away his furry friend

Good to see Victoria Wood in straight acting form, all well-meaning but quirky, full of the same potential menace as Pauline Quirke, but the series falls or flys on the appeal of Brodie.

Jason Isaacs continues to inhabit perfectly this weary optimist… with his failed personal life, his pugnaciousness, and his solitude save for his new pooch pal, The Ambassador. Surely there's hope for anyone with that furry mop sitting on the passenger seat.

Click here for more TV Reviews

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK | FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

REVIEW: 'The Great Gatsby' - An Ode to Emptiness

2013-05-16T08:54:28-04:00

If a film ultimately about emptiness leaves you 142 lavish minutes later feeling thoroughly depleted, does that mean it's a brilliant film? Discuss.

Baz Luhrmann's opulent version of The Great Gatsby is a faithful ode to the novel by F Scott Fitzgerald, generally held to be the finest American one of its kind, telling the tragedy of a self-made man, Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio). Gatsby is an enigmatic figure, with varying accounts as to how he made his fortune, but it's of small concern to the hordes who turn up at his Long Island mansion to drink his champagne and dance the night away.

Gatsby surrounds himself with impossibly expensive beautiful objects, and reaches out to reclaim the one thing he feels will make his life complete, his lost love Daisy (Carey Mulligan), now married to lascivious blue-blooded Tom Buchanan (chiselled Aussie Joel Edgerton), living on the other side of the bay, their house illuminated by the flashing green light of Gatsby's hope.

For a story all about the impossibility of changing the past, Luhrmann's version seems self-consciously aware of where it sits in relation to the story's own history, and that of its creators. For example, fans of the 1974 big screen version will be relieved to know that this Jay Gatsby even gets to fling his coloured shirts around at one point, in unashamed homage to Robert Redford's charismatic outing.

The dizzying opulence of Gatsby's parties, the swishing cars, the colourful costumes and flurry of cigarette-holders, all have the thumb-print of Luhrmann's previous hedonistic whirl, Moulin Rouge! stamped on them - which should give us pause as we remember how that recreational overdose concluded. Similarly, the beguiled wonder of Gatsby and Daisy's initial reunion has all the innocence of the Aussie director's Romeo + Juliet, and we know how THAT turned out.

And when we first see Gatsby holding court at one of his ridiculous, friendless gatherings attended by hundreds, he looks to all intents and purposes like a young Conrad Black reigning over one of his charity balls, those full-blown affairs that knew as few limits as their host and, once again, we have a nod to some future disaster.

For his leading man, Baz has recruited his original Romeo, DiCaprio, who gives Gatsby his customary all-consuming effort, and this casting is particularly apt. For DiCaprio, with his still cherubic face, serves as a bridge between that earlier film's innocence and romance and this futile attempt to grasp hold of it again. In the 17 years between, DiCaprio's also brought Howard Hughes to life in The Aviator, and there's much of that reclusive control freak in here, too. It's as though all these parts were inevitably shifting forward to this point in time - and it's the only film they could all have made together.

Is it possible to know too much about actors going in? Having read up on Tobey Maguire's own tireless drive for self-made success at the weekend, it was hard not to bring this knowledge to his narrator Nick Carraway's partisan lack of cynicism about Gatsby. It's a bias fortunately not shared by Luhrmann or Leonardo, who've made Gatsby as flawed as everyone else, if saved by his nobility, some wonderful bespoke suits and a cherubic smile.

We haven't had a big screen Gatsby since 1974, and I often wonder why these talented people bother with remakes when there are so many original stories to be told. But, for once, the relevance is plain to see. As well as telling the eternal story of a doomed love triangle, Luhrmann doesn't neglect the context of these thrill-seekers. He casts a knowing glance at Wall Street, with its ever-rising stocks - how COULD they fail? And our heroes speed their cars, bright yellow and blue like in cartoons, unseeingly through obstacles, once with devastating consequences, while labourers in far less comely colours continue to toil.

The Great Gatsby is as unsubtle as anything Luhrmann has ever done (which is saying something when you think of Australia - shudder), and an almost inevitable triumph of style over substance. But, for once his brutal brush may be the perfect tool to depict something profound about glitz shrouding emptiness, and our own constant need for self-examination - as F Scott Fitzgerald described, "boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

'The Big Bang Theory' Actress Alice Amter Returns To Native Birmingham For A Trippy Experience

2013-05-15T10:40:28-04:00

'Big Bang Theory' star Alice Amter, who plays Raj's mother Mrs. Koothrappali, admits that she has found it surreal being surrounded by devoted fans on her return to her native Birmingham.

Amter, who moved to LA more than two decades ago, calls it "seriously trippy, spotting people dressed in Sheldon's T-shirts and seeing Flash Gordon costumes everywhere. It's nerd-dom at its best, and people speaking to me about my job in Birmingham accents".

Alice Amter stars with Kunal Nayyar and Brian George in 'The Big Bang Theory'

The Big Bang Theory, now in its sixth series, has undoubtedly got some serious love from its fans, but it was only in its infancy when Amter first auditioned. She didn't even recognise a certain small screen legend sitting in the room facing her...

"It was just another audition for me at the time," she recalls now. "I thought it was a funny script, and it required a funny, typical East Indian mother, whom I'd seen plenty of growing up on the streets of Birmingham.

"I had no idea who Chuck Lorre was. He was in the room both times, and if I'd known that, I would definitely have been thrown off. But he didn't impose himself at all. It was actually Bill Prady who directed me."

Raj speaks to his parents via computer

Amter was only meant to be in the show for one episode, but her on-screen chemistry with actor Brian George meant she secured regular returns. Why does she think it is so popular?

"It's cleverly written and funny," she says, before adding, "But I also think we're ready for those characters. The 1990s was full of all those beautiful people in 'Baywatch' and '90210', these unrealistic norms, but now these people are more in line with the technological advances and evolution that's gone on in people's lives."

Amter reveals that her fellow cast members are nothing like as nerdish as their characters - "it's the writers who are, really" but includes herself in that list - "I was a bookworm at school, I just studied and studied. I wasn't cool and hip at all."

Things have changed. Amter is self-admittedly living the life in the sunshine of LA, the city where she told a certain bearded director he "was a dead ringer for Steven Spielberg" when she first arrived.

Alice Amter is living the dream, bumping into Hollywood superstars, even if she doesn't recognise them

Although she has to think hard when pressed for what she misses about her native UK, Amter admits she probably wouldn't have got her Big Bang gig without her English sense of humour. "I do rely a lot on my English wit. It's very different from , but it definitely helps."

the rain teabags, curries? No. People are so friendly, kind and helpful here. sense of humour, If I wasn't english I don't know if I would have got the job, I do rely a lot on my english wit. It's very different, but it definitely helps.

'Here Comes Honey Boo Boo' Episode 1 Review - The Thompson Family Play The Kardashian Game, And Win

2013-05-14T16:19:11-04:00

'Here Comes Honey Boo Boo' came here to British screens on Tuesday night, and hit the ground running. 10 minutes in, it felt like we'd never not known the Thompson family, with the pig-tailed munchkin at its centre.

Honey Boo Boo is at the heart of the Thompson family of McIntyre, Georgia

I think it's fair to call this family a matriarchy. With the exception of 'Sugar Bear' Mike, who knows better than to argue with anyone, it's all about mother June Shannon, and her four daughters, Pumpkin, Chickadee, Chubbs and Alana aka Honey Boo Boo.

MORE: 10 Things You NEED To Know If You're Entering Honey Boo Boo's World...

The introductory double-bill had a few narrative strands to lean on - Honey Boo Boo's tears after another failed beauty pageant, some big belly flops at the annual Redneck Games, the arrival of Glitzy the teacup pig, a beleaguered etiquette expert doing her best with this bunch of Eliza Doolittles and finally... the piglet breaking wind in its cot.

So, why has this self-contained portrait of small-town life caught the imagination of three million US viewers, and impinged on the consciousness of even the nation's leader? Well, the pleasure in viewing seems to lie somewhere between the low opinion we're meant to have of people who happily break wind at the dinner table, and their own evident lack of self-doubt.

For while eyebrows can definitely be raised about their diet, or lack thereof, there is much to admire in a family who enjoy each other's company this much, who can find their own Swallows and Amazons idyl with belly flops into mud, whose mother rules her family with a will of benevolent iron like a real-life Roseanne.

More disturbing was the visit to the mini beauty pageant, and the tears of Honey Boo Boo at yet another defeat. Never mind, "she's always a winner to me," says mum, which is a pretty accurate assessment actually, when you consider this family of 'losers' are actually the ones tucking 50,000 notes in their back pockets per episode.

Which cuts to the whole heart of the matter. This programme has been accused of being horrifyingly exploitative, but can that be true of a family enjoying such a chunk of change? The way they shop, that's a whole lot of shampoo in bulk.

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK | FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

But does paying them make it okay? One presenter, Sherri Shepherd on the US show 'The View' reflected, ""Your job is to protect your child and if you don't think paedophiles are watching this show, I have a bridge I want to sell you."

But at the heart of the family is June, a woman who only wants her girls to have self-esteem, has no problem with her weight, only urging women of a similar size to put some clothes on, and reflects of her own lack of glamour that she just needs to "put a little paint on this barn".

Compared with the pointless posing, self-promoting, brand-bashing Kardashians, who don't blink unless a camera's rolling, this lot, this is all quite refreshing, along with the family's fun, ability to live in the moment and behave in front of the lenses exactly as you know they would be anyway.

So... what do you reckon? I have to say I really have no idea what to think, and currently my favourite character's Glitzy the pig. Will I never tune in again, or sit religiously through ten more episodes? Don't know, but something tells me they're not going anywhere soon.

'The Fall' TV Review - Gillian Anderson A Class Act, Jamie Dornan A New Star

2013-05-14T03:17:36-04:00

Another Monday evening, another intense crime drama - this time 'The Fall', a five-parter with more than one advantage to set it apart from many of its genre.

Gillian Anderson plays Stella Gibson, a hard-edged Met detective drafted in to review a murder enquiry in Belfast where it soon becomes clear that Gibson has a serial killer on her hands.

Gillian Anderson as Stella Gibson - surely igniting a spike in the sale of silk blouses

The first unusual aspect is the writing. Allan Cubitt has taken the bold step of giving equal screen time to Stella and her team, and to Paul, the subject of their investigation, even if they don't know it yet. While Stella works her methodical way through the files, we see Paul, bereavement counsellor by day (even if qualifies his compassion by doodling inappropriate pictures of his clients, even while they're pouring out their hearts to him), brutal assailant by night.

And Cubitt gave his victim some screen time too, even as her life was quickly running out, so that, as he explained at launch, "we have reason to care".

Jamie Dornan - breakthrough star of the 'The Fall'

It comes as no surprise that Gillian Anderson is superb, all smooth, silk blouse and pale blue eyes. The actress has said she was offered many Prime Suspect-esque scripts following her X-Files success, and she has many of the qualities of Jane Tennyson, including her sexual confidence and professional independence, without sacrificing an ounce of her femininity. A class act, as a woman who spends as much time alone as the target of her investigation.

More of a revelation is Jamie Dornan in that role. He inhabits thoroughly the complexities of a man older than himself, believable in both guises of loving family man and psychopathic loner with a whole load of unsavoury stuff in the loft, in what is sure to become his breakthrough role.

MORE: Jamie Dornan is the breakout star of 'The Fall' but... who IS he?

Click here for more TV Reviews

EXCLUSIVE: Bill Wyman's Scrapbook Looks Back On Childhood, A Self-Built Guitar And The 'Disappointing' Rolling Stones Reunion

2013-05-13T08:19:48-04:00

Bill Wyman is an affable chap, as you would expect of a wealthy, happily-married rock star, with a big house - with moat - in the country, lots of friends, children, a band of his own still on the road and even his own restaurant still going strong.

So only a glimmer of bemused frustration passes his brow when the subject of the Rolling Stones, specifically the 50th anniversary gigs last year, comes up... was it like pulling on an old, comfy pair of slippers? He chuckles.

Bill Wyman was with the Rolling Stones from 1962 to 1993

"You could say that... the nice thing was that my kids saw me on stage with the Stones. They'd asked me the December before, and I had to jam with them for three days. I was under the impression I was going to get really involved, but when it came to it, they only wanted me to do two songs, which was very disappointing.

He shrugs. "I've always maintained that you can't go back to things, and they can never be the same. It's like a school reunion, or Tony Hancock's Army reunion. If you try to go back and have a relationship with someone, it doesn't work, and it's the same musically. It doesn't work. It was a one-off. Five minutes. Ok, never again. No regrets, we're still great friends."

But, contrary to most interviews, we're not here to talk about the present, or the near past, because in front of us is a massive coffee-table book, in which Wyman, already a 7-times published author, presents his life, all the way from his wartime childhood in south London, which sounds straight out of something John Boorman would make a film about...

"We were wandering around bombsites, nicking stuff, taking things home as freebies, not at all nice really, but we were all at it."

"All I ever wanted was a normal family life - changing lightbulbs, toilet rolls"

The publishers could not have found a more diligent archivist. Wyman has had diaries, pictures, letters all tucked away for years... why the collection?

"Nostalgia. Originally, because my son, when I joined the Stones, was 8 months old, and I wanted to keep souvenirs for him when I thought it would be one gig, one radio appearance, and then I just kept adding... and working backwards as well."

There's the first picture of him aged six when he still just William Perks, another photo of the music-hall where his parents first met, snaps of his manor house in Suffolk complete with aforementioned moat, but adding a frisson to any lord-of-the-manor appearances is Wyman's description of its previous owner, the Krays' godfather.

"They went there after their last crime, the murder of Jack the Hat," he tells me matter-of-factly. "When he died, his funeral was at our local church, so I met Charlie, and the Daily Mirror loved that. I didn't know any other hoodlums, really."

Each picture is captioned and explained in Bill's beautiful writing. "The reference ones I've had to find, but the personal ones are all mine." They include his foray to Germany for national service, where listening to Fats Domino and Elvis on the radio sent him running down the road to buy his first guitar. Everybody in these snaps has got the same DA haircut - "we tried to fit somewhere between Gene Vincent and Tony Curtis."

"It's like any other reunion... you can't go back," says Bill of his time with the Rolling Stones, which came to an end in 1993

Pretty soon after these pages are the first pictures of the Stones, "mainly taken by fans" according to Bill. "There have been thousands of pictures of us over the years, so for me it was trying to work out what people would still like to see. There we are in my parents' old-fashioned house. We were just ordinary lads having an extraordinary time."

Are they really that ordinary, even now? Bill is at pains to claim these credentials for certain members of the band, anyway...

"Me and Charlie are just like we were, we're working class kids, we've always not gone into the showbizzy star thing at all. You do it as a career, you try to be nice to people, but you want to keep an ordinary life, you want to do normal things, you want to change lightbulbs, you want to change toilet rolls. I do everything, clear the garbage, I used to do hoovering. When I first got married, I did all the plastering, and put new plugs in. I like doing ordinary things, and being ordinary. It's part of the charm of growing up."

Yes, but few ordinary folk have the option of meeting Elvis backstage, and then turn it down, something Bill can claim after watching The King in concert in the early 1970s.

"I didn't want to spoil my image of him. He did 20 minutes of rockabilly, which I loved, but then it was all showbizzy 'My Way'. And I remembered what John Lennon told us, about how they went round to see him and he just kept putting the jukebox on with all his own records."

Ronnie Wood and David Bowie are two of the famous faces on the pages of Bill Wyman's Scrapbook

So Bill doesn't do that then, once his guests have traversed the moat? He scoffs. "I don't have anything in my houses, no memorabilia, no gold records, nothing. Loads of people do, and I always think, 'Why do this? This isn't a home, it's a showpiece.' All my stuff is in the attic, gathering dust."

Bill's admiration evidently lies elsewhere, particularly for talented musicians he has met along the way, many of whom are featured on the pages, and between whom he rates himself as somewhere in the middle.

"I can pick up things quite quickly, I'm quite musical, I had piano lessons when I was young, passed exams at the Royal College of Music and all that, so when I hear the beginning of a song, I know where the chords are going to go. The rest of the band don't hear that, they have to learn it, so they always thought I learned things quicker than them. But you can just feel it... "

How do people divide up responsibilities in a band? Bill grins mischievously...

"Well they don't very often. I'd better not go there... well, if you're in Van Morrison's band, I don't think Van Morrison would say the keyboard player helped me write this song, you know what I mean? And so you wouldn't get credited, and you just have to live with being in this pop band, basically."

"All this stuff's just been gathering dust in my attic"

A pop band that has sold an estimated 200 million albums and lasted half a century, mind you. There must have been some surreal moments along the way, I'm guessing. Bill's chosen example of his biggest pinch-me episode is extremely revealing...

"I tell you when it was... in the autumn of 1964, when I moved from a three-room flat where the wallpaper was peeling off the walls it was so wet, there was a big hole in the front room, which we had to cover with a sofa, and I tried to live there when my son was born, and then I got into the Stones, made some money, and we were able to move into a flat over a garage opposite Beckenham Grammar School, with a toilet inside for the first time in my life. We had hot running water and a bath - all in the flat. £7 a week. And just enjoying that luxury, I thought, 'this is living, what I've been aiming for all my life.'

"All I wanted was a nice home, good car, nice wife and family. That was what I'd wanted all my life. After that, it just got silly."

A huge number of diverse personalities, from tennis player Vitas Gueralitis to artist Marc Chagall pepper the book's pages. "Lots of my friends are dead," notes Bill, flicking through, before going back to the pictures of his childhood. "That first photo of me, I look so innocent, I find it hard to relate to it, actually, because I don't feel like that's really me. I didn't have the slightest idea, when I left grammar school, before I took my O levels, I had no idea what I wanted to do. Not the faintest idea.

"I always had interests in other things. I would follow those interests in books, archaeology, ancient cultures, all that, but I could never go forward with writing books or visiting the pyramids. I just could never do it while I was in the band, and that's one of the reasons I left."

In his broad canvas of interests and friends, Wyman reminds me of another oft-uncredited band member, George Harrison, a comment that makes him smile. "We were great friends, I used to see a picture of him, and think it was me. A whole bunch of kids in New York once asked me to sign a whole load of autographs, and it turned out they thought I was George. It got that weird."

And like Harrison, Bill Wyman proves a genial, multi-faceted man who, while proud of his time with the world's biggest band, refuses to be defined by it. His book provides ample evidence of a huge life, both in and away from the Stones. "There's loads more where this came from. I could do another 15 books with all the stuff I've got."

So is this to be continued, then?

"I don't know about that. You have to find a different way each time. You can't just keep repeating."

Bill Wyman's Scrapbook is available for purchase now from www.concertlive.co.uk RRP £229. Each book is signed by Bill, numbered and certified. Strictly a limited edition out of 1962 copies (the year Bill joined the Rolling Stones)

TV REVIEW: 'Suspicions Of Mr Whicher' Reunited BAFTA Winner Olivia Colman With Star-Maker Paddy Considine

2013-05-13T04:00:30-04:00

Olivia Colman, on the night she made BAFTA history, screened on BBC1, was being fittingly reunited over on the other side with the man who can truthfully be credited her star-maker.

Paddy Considine, the man who cast Colman in 'Tyrannosaur' and showed her full acting chops which have heralded this year's great breakthrough, played Mr Whicher in this period piece, complete with neat pork-pie hat, mutton chops and lots and lots of brown.

Olivia Colman and Paddy Considine co-starred in 'The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher'

His suspicions of the title concerned the whereabouts of a young lady, Mary Drew, being searched for an anxious aunt Susan Spencer (Colman).

It was a typical enough Victorian tale - a young lady brought to ruin by accidental motherhood, a refuge with a dodgy Reverend, leading to a labyrinth of family secrets, murder, shame and betrayal. And lots and lots of hats.

Considine and Colman in satisfying enough fare for a Sunday evening

Satisfying enough fare for a Sunday evening, although the whole thing felt like one background strand of an otherwise complex Dickens novel. The random, circular plot didn't really deserve Considine on good form as the Victorian version of that typical maverick investigator whom the authorities scorn and fear in equal measure.

As for Olivia Colman, she was her usual committed self, but a far bigger story was unravelling for her over on the other channel.

Click here for more TV Reviews

TRAILER: 'Downton Abbey' Star Dan Stevens Makes Move To Big Screen With Dominic Cooper In 'Summer In February'

2013-05-10T06:19:54-04:00

The many fans of Dan Stevens, particularly when the 'Downton Abbey' star is looking lovelorn, anguished and dressed in an impeccable military jacket from around the 1910s, will be delighted to learn his first post-Downton effort is nearly here, and it finds him looking somewhat familiar.

Dan Stevens and Emily Browning in 'Summer in February'

In 'Summer in February', Stevens plays one third of a love triangle, set amongst the wild and bohemian Lamorna Group of artists, who've set up their community along the Cornwall coastline of 1913.

'Summer in February' is based on a real story of an artists' commune in Cornwall

Stevens plays land agent Gilbert Evans, upright, earnest, true of mind, a real pillar of the community - sound familiar? - and with his heart set on aspiring painter Florence Carter-Wood (Emily Browning). But he can't compete with the talent and charisma of star painter AJ Munnings (Dominic Cooper), especially when the latter starts spouting poetry in the pub and seducing Florence with his brush.

How can Gilbert (Dan Stevens) compete with the charismatic AJ Munnings (Dominic Cooper)?

As with all these bohemian groups who talk a good tale of free, open, uncomplicated love, so we see in 'Summer in February' that such romances generally reach a sticky end. Fans of Stevens will be delighted to see his fringe bouncing and his brow furrowing as he negotiates the croquet hoops of love, friendship and impending war.

'Summer in February' will be in UK cinemas on 14 June 2013. And here, because it's been a while, are pictures from when we last saw Mr Stevens in action in Downton Abbey - will it survive without him?

TV Tonight: 'The Politician's Husband' Finale, Starring David Tennant, Emily Watson

2013-05-09T07:44:15-04:00

Tonight sees the finale of the political drama three-parter 'The Politician's Husband', with Aiden Hoynes (David Tennant) and wife Freya (Emily Watson) battling for parliamentary prowess - one for glory, one just for survival.

Last week's shocking episode found Hoynes resorting to desperate measures as he battled for relevance in the corridors of Westminster, and grew increasingly suspicious of his wife's relationships with other politicians.

But, he could be matched move for move by the increasingly robust Freya, particularly with the looming threat of a scorned au pair ready to bring him down in a sex scandal. Could Aiden be hanged for the wrong crime, in tonight's finale of this pacey, some may say squashed-up, drama that has done its best to fill the gap between the end of 'The Thick of It' and the return of 'Borgen'.

The Politician's Husband finishes tonight at 9pm, BBC2.

Alison Moyet Interview: Her Pity For Adele, The Battles Of Yazoo And Why 'The Minutes' Album Is Her Happiest Yet

2013-05-08T09:14:57-04:00

Alison Moyet despairs of "lazy comparisons" that put her side by side with Adele - "purely for the fact that we were two fat girls singing torch songs. It always happens."

The former Yazoo singer, whose album 'the minutes' has been released to huge plaudits this week, presents her evidence with the language she hears on TV talent shows...

Alison Moyet is back, and happier with her sound than ever

"If you watch 'X Factor', every time a fat girl came on, it was 'the next Alison Moyet'," she explains. "Now it's 'the next Adele'. It doesn't hurt me, but I think it's like categorising two gay actors together, or ginger-haired men... it's just silly categorising.

"I do get that we're both stationary performers, but there'll be a talented man, with an electronic background, who has much more in common with me, musically. Or even PJ Harvey in terms of where we started out from. It's lazy comparisons, but she'll get it as well, you watch... the next Adele."

LISTEN HERE: The Stream Of Alison Moyet's Complete Album 'the minutes'

It's bizarre talking about this 'fat' label with Moyet, sitting across from me, noticeably slim and glamorous, something she's utterly uninterested in discussing - "it's only us women who have to deal with this, who have to justify what we look like, but it can't be where our self-esteem comes from."

"I don't need someone to find me shag-worthy." Apparently, this was a 'compliment' Moyet came across on Twitter, which has left her bemused... "You're supposed to be flattered, but I find myself mildly offended."

Moyet's new album, 'the minutes', has been released this week. And It's been greeted with critical acclaim. Which of these, if any, have given her the most pleasure?

"I'm not excited, I'm happy," she tells me, curled up around her coffee, not the first of the day, at lunchtime in a London pub. "I had no expectations of anything other than making something I feel good about, and I've done that. And I'm at a place where what I want comes ahead of audiences and demographics."

She has been quoted, calling 'the minutes' her happiest recording experience, all credit, she says, to her relationship with collaborator Guy Gigsworth, her partner in the studio for the last three years.

"Writing music with someone is as intimate as sex," Moyet explains. "It's hard exposing your words to someone, so when I first sit down with someone, I stutter, I'm inarticulate, but we both spoke the same language."

Something that someone with a career as long as Moyet's (30 years now and counting) doesn't take for granted... "I'd meet these people who'd want to work with me, but I never felt they truly knew their way around the music.

"And when you are known for being a singer..." she says almost shyly, considering her sales in their millions... "people think they can't f*** with you, what I love about Guy is that I can be a singer, but he can also f*** with me,e and thus make interesting sounds in a way that hasn't really happened since Yazoo days when there were no expectations."

Yazoo saw Moyet and Vince Clarke break through with the distinctive combination of Moyet's unique voice and Clarke's electronic sounds on hits including 'Only You' and 'Don't Go', but split in 1983, before a reunion tour a few years ago.

"The last time I saw Vince was 2008," says Moyet now. "We fell apart acrimoniously as young people, but both of us have matured in that time and realised we'd been whiney bastards just not handling pressure well.

"If you think about it, I was at college, and then three months later, I was a massive pop star. It's stress-making, especially when you're a bit of an oddball as I was, the black sheep left to your own devices, and then suddenly everyone's interested in you."

Moyet returns several times to the theme of her outsidedness in an industry that relies on prototypes. Even now, with nothing to prove and a fanbase hanging happily on every note, she calls her success "a double edged sword, because people are open to hearing you, but they have expectations. So your name mean record companies ready to take your call, but as soon as you say you're not doing Etta James covers, it's different.

"There are very few record companies who will entertain a middle-aged woman coming to them with original material." Sure, but she's not just any old middle-aged woman walking through the door, is she? Moyet broadens the discussion accordingly...

"It simply becomes more and more difficult as you move further away from your heyday, music being the only format where you're treasured for your youth, that and acting.

"If you're a writer or a painter or any other kind of artist, your experience is coveted. If you cover yourself with botox you're vilified, if you don't, you're an old hag."

So what's the solution as she sees it?

"We move as independent spirits and take ourselves off that pitch. I will not do the things that they are prepared to take of me, and I will make the record I want to make, and hang the consequences."

All of this is said with the bright smile of an artist whose album is off the presses, but this was never a certainty, apparently. "I've lost three deals over the past three years, trying to get this album going, all wanting to sign me, all wanting soft jazz covers, all wanting to be associated with a spread of my house in Hello! magazine, which if you could see my house, is just the funniest thing."

Moyet isn't just talking the talk - she has more in common with George Michael than being the more vocal part of an 80s duo. Like him, she took on Sony in the courtroom to battle for an artist's rights... "although he was much more focused than me, I definitely do have ADHD difficulties in that department," she reflects now.

Which gets us to the heart of the matter - what is 'the minutes' all about?

"Well, as a middle-aged woman, we can spend a lot of our time berating that we're never going to look so great as we thought we would, and we think that we're surrounded by all these glorious lives, and you get to my age, and you realise it was never about the hours, the years, it was about the minutes that were mounted in years, these brilliant things that we go back to."

She's right, it does sound pretty intimate, but she's willing even to expand, explaining how her epiphany for the album came during a wet Amsterdam afternoon when she decided to nurse her hangover in the shelter of the cinema. Hoping for a rom-com, she bumped into Terence Malick's notoriously opaque 'Tree of Life' instead...

"It all started out a bit weird, and people were leaving the cinema," is how Moyet remembers it. "And then 10 minutes before the credits something beautiful happened, and it made me realise, how often do we jump too soon, give up, hand our cards in before we have that beautiful moment. And I wouldn't have had that experience if I hadn't sat through all the hard stuff. It was all about the minutes."

Alison Moyet's 'the minutes' is available now. Click here to order. Watch her in action with next single 'When I Was Your Girl' below...

'Village At The End Of The World' Documentary - Sarah Gavron Tells The Heartwarming Story Of Niaqornat, Population 59

2013-05-08T07:43:27-04:00

The director of the documentary film 'The Village at the End of the World' admits that she didn't even realise the power of the story in in her camera, until she was able to have her material translated.

As it is, what started out as an adventure for Sarah Gavron and her family has ended up being the inspiring portrait of a ravaged community thriving against the odds.

Niaqornat - population: humans 59, sledging dogs 100

The filmmaker and her husband had decided to film in Niaqornat, a tiny hamlet in north west Greenland, population 59, when the inhabitants held a town meeting. Invited along, Gavron had no idea what was being discussed - it was only afterwards she discovered the fish factory, on which almost all of the town depended for their livelihoods, was about to be closed.

"We filmed it blind, so we had no idea the whole town was in such peril," she explains. "There was only one person in the whole village who spoke English, so we had to go very much on instinct."

What follows is a wealth of rich characterisation as the tiny town struggles to keep the fish factory going, as well as dealing with the usual challenges of life perched on the edge of living world - including watching their youngsters, including the town's only remaining teenager Lars, pack up and disappear in search of work and love in the bigger towns they know they will never see themselves.

And there are some lighter moments, including the wonderful story of one man who finds love on the internet and promises his bride he will accept her, whatever she looks like. I won't ruin what happens here, but it's heartwarming in the extreme.

Working can be pretty solitary

Despite being so isolated, the town's people were strangely welcoming of Gavron and her cameras, helped by the fact she often had her two young children with her. "They were very welcoming of children, and they don't get a lot of visitors, so when we asked them if we could document them, everybody was open to the idea... there were only a few who opted not to, out of shyness."

Gavron remains full of admiration for the community she came across by chance. "You can go somewhere, on the face of it so alien and remote, and find connections.

If you can bear the cold and the quiet, this part of the world is extremely beautiful

"Coming from a city, it was humbling, too, to remind myself about the power of nature. They know their lives are governed by the elements, they can't go out hunting if the ice is cracking and it was an invaluable reminder.

"I was also moved by their energy and determination, as set about changing their lot and that they felt they could. We feel powerless a lot of the time, and they very much didn't take that attitude. It was inspiring."

'Village at the End of the World' is in cinemas from Friday 10 May. Check here for your nearest screening, and watch the trailer below...

Benedict Cumberbatch Interview - Star Of 'Sherlock' And 'Star Trek Into Darkness' Reveals His Only Fear...

2013-05-08T06:25:58-04:00

The many fans of Benedict Cumberbatch - including the ones of the adoring, mostly female, variety, the 'Cumberbitches' as he reluctantly acknowledged to Graham Norton last week - need not fear... their hero has no concerns about overexposure, on screen at least.

"The only thing I fear is overexposure as a human being," he tells HuffPostUK in London. "I'm fine at the moment. I have enough resources to keep working, though everyone has their limits, and I've really enjoyed the variety and volume of work over the last couple of years."

Benedict Cumberbatch's 'Star Trek' villain John Harrison is the latest in a long line of British villains in US films

Off-screen for the 'Sherlock' star is another matter.

"It will bring a new level of scrutiny, investigation into the personal or private, which I'm getting used to. It's not all roses, but it's ok. It would be churlish to say I wasn't aware of the reality of it, but there are ways of sidestepping not courting it. I'm interested in it being about the work, but I understand why people are obsessed with the personal as well.

"It doesn't mean you like it.

"You lose control over privacy. You can't control perceptions any more, the whole anti-Downton thing (when Cumberbatch's jokes dissing Downton were taken out of context)... the posh thing... saying Johnny (Miller) did Elementary (the US 'Sherlock' project) for the money."

FEATURE: Cumberbatch's 8 Steps To Screen Stardom

Cumberbatch gestures to a smartly-dressed lady, sitting quietly at the side of the room. "This is Emily, my niece. We were out to dinner celebrating the fact that I got nominated for a Golden Globe, she gets into a car with me, and there are 15 paps on the bonnet, spraying us with flash photography. You accept that it happens, of course it's weird. I only have to stand next to someone at a tea party.

"I'm sanguine about it, you can't explain, you can't complain, you move on."

'Sherlock' will be returning for a third series later in the year

And we move on... to his current screen role, which can only increase the number of bonnet-bound paps surely, that of villain John Harrison in JJ Abrams blockbuster sequel 'Star Trek Into Darkness', a project about which Cumberbatch seems inordinately chuffed.

"It's part of the job to mythologise the experience, and you don't have to do that with this one. It's as easy as breath to talk about this one."

Abrams has waxed equally lyrical about Cumberbatch's talents, calling him "an extraordinary talent, one of the greatest actors I've ever seen", and it does seem that the 'Sherlock' star has imbued his villain with some unusual depth... "There is a sort of three dimensionality to this character, which was great fun to get teeth into, and you do get to sympathise with him, despite the fact he's a terrorist intent on destruction, and he's violent and despicable.

"But the reasons he does it are noble, in the tradition of the rebel power. Someone's trying to fight the superpower, and in this story, that would be star fleet."

Cumberbatch takes his place in a long, celebrated line of British on-screen villainy. While Ben Kingsley recently told HuffPostUK this tradition was because our native actors "are cheap and turn up on time", Cumberbatch appears a little more reflective...

"There have enough people who been vilified in American politics to have American villains now, but it is a very American thing, to have British villains.

"I think we're still, despite being the origination of America with other Dutch French et al, there is an element to us of being outside of the culture, reminding themselves a little of what they were.

There's an echo, we carry traditions, theatre traditions, but I think it might be something to do with charm, someone who can persuade through having a degree of otherness. Intelligence always works well, something debonair and different."

Debonair and different. Sums it all up, really.

'Star Trek: Into Darkness' is in UK cinemas this week. Watch our exclusive featurette - 'JJ Abrams' vision' - above, and the trailer below...

'Girls' Star Alex Karpovsky Describes His Character Barista Ray: 'I Love Him But I'm Very Frustrated With Him'

2013-05-07T11:41:03-04:00

The boys on ‘Girls’ may have all sorts of trouble dealing with the women in their lives but, in real time, Alex Karpovsky says life could not be sweeter with Lena Dunham at the helm of the hit show.

“I love Lena to death,” says the actor who plays barista Ray Ploshansky. “I love her as a friend and colleague. She can always separate her acting from her directing, it’s extraordinary how she does it.

Ray and Shoshanna - in love, but... it's complicated

And how does he feel about Ray? “I love him, but I’m very frustrated with him, it’s a very conflicted relationship.”

At the centre of Ray’s life is his relationship with the much younger Shoshanna, who loves him but is troubled by his lack of ambition. This is not a charge that could ever be levelled at Karpovsky, a busy writer-actor-director in the mould of his film hero, Woody Allen, whose New York screen sensibility he’s happy to share... “authentic, self-analytical, neurotic, it’s all there.”

Why does Karpovsky keep himself so busy? “I don’t have anything else to do,” he tells me, deadpan. “I have no girlfriend, no hobbies, I work for something to do.” When pressed, he admits that, during the few hours he spends away from the creative process, he is a happy birdwatcher.

I don’t believe life is as solitary as all this, but it’s a convincing evocation of solitude Karpovsky brings to the screen in ‘Rubberneck’ - a thriller, where his lonely scientist character Paul becomes obsessed with a work colleague, with increasingly chaotic, brutal results. I do wonder from where the chilling narrative brewed within him, but he says simply, “I do like a character-driven thriller, I think it’s my favourite genre.”

Karpovsky is disturbingly believable as the lonely Paul in 'Rubberneck'

His other current offering, ‘Supporting Characters’, is a far more sociable affair, sitting in the world of New York film edit suites, where long hours and intense relationships, often with the people they’re staring at on screen for hours, can lead to confusion in romance and motives.

“This is a film about the ability of everyone to mess up a good thing,” he explains. “These characters have a lot of things going in their favour, but they seem hell-bent on self-sabotage. Their frustrations and confusions would bubble forth. And we do, of course, write about what we know.”

'Supporting Characters' is set in a world familiar to Karpovsky

It’s an environment Karpovsky knows all about - he was a film editor before moving in front of the camera.

“I had no strong desire to act, it didn’t turn me on, but I had to put myself in my first movie, because I couldn’t think of anyone else prepared to go two years with the same haircut.

“It’s nice, though, to act now, and not carry the burden of the whole production.”

Which brings us back to his glorious success with ‘Girls’. Professionally speaking, has a corner been turned?

He agrees, almost reluctantly, that this is the case - “but I don’t care to think about it too much, I don’t think that would be helpful to me.”

Woody Allen would be proud.

'Rubberneck' and 'Supporting Characters' are available now to UK viewers via Tribeca Film On Demand on iTunes, Virgin Media and Playstation. Watch the trailers for both below...

EXCLUSIVE CLIP: 'Borgen' Star Pilou Asbaek In 'A Hijacking', Plus He Reveals Why He Won't Be Going To Hollywood

2013-05-07T09:48:47-04:00

'Borgen' star Pilou Asbaek will no doubt disappoint the many fans of Nordic Noir, as he reveals that his character Kasper isn't central to the goings-on in the third and final series of the hit Danish political drama, back on UK screens at the end of the year.

Viewers have been transfixed by the ghosts of troubled spin doctor Kasper's childhood coming back to haunt him, as he attempts to build a relationship with journalist Katrine.

Pilou Asbaek is the troubled cook Mikkel Hartmann in 'A Hijacking'

Asbaek, a lot more laid back than his on-screen counterpart, but with no diminishing of expression in the eyebrow region, explains he will appear during Series 3, but he won't be up front and centre.

"Kasper's story had come to an end. He had dealt, for the most part, with what what had happened to him. I had to take a punch here" - he points to his stomach - "and realise it was for the good of the story."

The good news is that this has freed up the extrovert Danish actor to work on a series of big screen projects making their way from his incredibly productive native region across the Baltic Sea.

The first is the drama 'A Hijacking', which sees Asbaek play a cook on a Danish trawler, taken over by Somali pirates, somewhere on the Indian Ocean. 'Borgen' fans will recognise another face, that of Soren Malling, as the CEO of the shipping company who takes on negotiations with the pirates himself, but it is Asbaek's performance as a man separated from his family and under threat who is at the heart of the film.

More coiffed but no less troubled - Asbaek as spin doctor Kasper in 'Borgen'

Despite the quality of his performance, Asbaek, who has become a first-time father since the film was made, questions if he could have done better. "Now I am a father myself, I feel like I know so much more about what his feelings were. It would be very different, but..." he shrugs, "you can only go with what you have."

The script is by Tobias Lindholm ('The Hunt', 'Borgen'), and its quality gives weight to Asbaek's avowed determination that he will not be deserting his Danish homeland for the lights of LA any time soon.

"I went there, and I wasn't sure what I was looking for, and I suddenly realised it was in my back garden," he tells me emphatically, with another rumble of the distinctive brows. "I am lucky enough to work right now with the best writer I can think of - why would I go anywhere else?"

'A Hijacking' is in UK cinemas from Friday 10 May. Watch our exclusive clip above, and the trailer below...

Bonnie Tyler Interview: 'I Won't Mind If Believe In Me Gets Nil Points At Eurovision Song Contest'

2013-05-07T08:37:00-04:00

Bonnie Tyler is adamant that she won't be disappointed should the worst happen at the Eurovision Song Contest. She's not worried about getting nil points, and swears she'll only be disappointed about one thing.

"If I don't like what I've done, I won't be happy," she tells HuffPostUK. "As long as I'll be happy with my performance when I come off that stage, and I don't fluff up or fall over, I won't mind at all what the scores are."

Bonnie Tyler is prepared for the worst, hoping for the best, at the Eurovision Song Contest

Even the prospect of the dreaded nil points at Malmo, Sweden, in a couple of weeks? "Going to take it on the chin," she smiles.

So just another gig then, for the Welsh songstress whose career is still going strong with tours after 35 years? "No. It's a bit nerve-wracking, because there'll be people there, not just to see me as I'm used to. I'll be very happy to see a few British flags flying."

The Welsh songstress has been getting advice from a handful of Eurovision alumni...

"Katrina (and the Waves) told me, 'it's hard work but enjoy yourself. Your feet won't touch the ground.' Nicky from Brotherhood of Man told me to enjoy it. And Graham Norton (who comments on the show for the UK, told me, 'Oh, Bonnie, pace yourself, go easy over there.'"

Bonnie's equally excited about the release of her album 'Rocks and Honey' - her first new material for eight years, written and recorded in Nashville and so titled following a studio session for her duet 'What You Need From Me' with multi-Grammy award winner Vince Gill.

"Once we'd finished singing, one of the engineers told us, 'your voices blend, yours is so rough like rocks and his so smooth like honey, and ' and I thought, now that's a good title."

Many singers might buck at such a description, but they'd be the ones without the sales and hits of Bonnie, thanks to her trademark husky sound. She doesn't mind at all, and nor does she mind wheeling out the old favourites for her fans as far as Russia...

"I always include the classics, people want to hear them. 'Holding out for a Hero' is the last of my set, and I never get tired of singing 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' (1983, total sales now exceeding 9 million). I sing it much better now than I used to. I think my voice is probably not as husky as it was, I think it's mellowed a bit."

'Total Eclipse' was nominated for a Grammy, and Bonnie had her own pinch-me moment standing on the stage in LA

"I looked out and I could see Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, and I had to come down these stairs, singing. I just thought, 'I'm going to fall, I'm going to fall...' but I didn't."

Malmo's going to be a breeze.

Bonnie Tyler's new album 'Rocks and Honey' is out now. Bonnie will be singing at the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday 18 May. Watch her entry here...