W-OLF
03-21-2006, 05:02 PM
History Is Backdrop for 'Gideon's Daughter'
Published: 3/21/06, 10:25 AM EDT
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Grief, both personal and public, is at the heart of BBC America's upcoming romantic drama "Gideon's Daughter."
The time and place for this original TV movie is 1997 London - when a Labor government had just taken over after 18 years of Conservative rule, and when much-adored Princess Diana was killed in a car crash.
"It was a moment of great change, or seemingly it was going to be, and also Diana's death turned it into this extraordinary un-English explosion of ostentatious grief, which people didn't think the Brits did," says "Gideon's" writer and director, Stephen Poliakoff. "That was a shock to everyone, including me."
Against this backdrop, Poliakoff - who likes writing "about the recent past" - has set an intimate romance with underlying themes about "parents' fears for their children" and "the cult of celebrity."
The story explores the emotional crises of Gideon (Bill Nighy), a public relations guru who advises stars and politicians, and Stella (Miranda Richardson), who works the night shift at a convenience store and is not "remotely interested in celebrity."
Gideon is anguished over his estrangement from his college-age daughter. Stella is heartbroken from the death of her young son. Together this unlikely pair finds some comfort.
Both Nighy and Richardson previously worked for Poliakoff on the PBS drama "The Lost Prince," which last fall won the Emmy for outstanding miniseries.
Richardson says she likes Poliakoff's work because, "It's odd and it's more real than real. He's passionate about it and he celebrates humanity in all its weirdnesses."
She also calls him a "historian," who "can look across and make sense of events in a very personal way. He deals with minutia, the things that happen on the periphery of big events ... I think he has an uncanny knack for capturing times."
"Gideon's Daughter," premiering March 23 at 10 p.m. EST, was filmed in London and Scotland. However permission was denied for shooting in Kensington Gardens, the royal park where the banks and banks of flowers in tribute to Diana had been stacked. A park owned by a local London council was the substitute, with real flowers used in the re-creation; nothing computer generated.
"Big notices were put up by the location manager saying, 'This is only for a drama,'" Poliakoff explains. "There were arrows pointing to me if they wanted to ask any questions, but nobody got upset."
Richardson, 48, thinks Poliakoff cast her as Stella because "There's a kind of openness, hopefully, that I give off ... and he likes the way I dress and encouraged me to incorporate it."
The melange of clothing and jewelry the actress wears on this day - a mix of designer and catch-as-catch-can - certainly works as an eye-catching symbol of her unconventional personality.
"Miranda's a very strong and very individualistic person off screen, but she's very content on the set. She loves to act. She's very little trouble ... very unstarry, quite content to sit and wait. She's very fulfilled on film," says the 53-year-old Poliakoff.
Often cast as "witches, bad people, or neurotics," Poliakoff says he was delighted to offer the actress a character who is so positive, despite her tragedy.
Although Richardson has no recollection of the moment, she's been told that as a young child, she "very determinedly" announced she would be an actor. She says that according to her older sister, she was always something of a drama queen.
She's played many a queen since in a range of roles that includes not just Queen Mary but an outrageous spoof of Elizabeth I given to uttering remarks like "I'm going to execute the whole bally lot of you," in the "Black Adder" TV series.
She was nominated for an Oscar in 1992 for her supporting role as the angry jilted wife in "Damage" and for best actress in 1994 as the emotionally damaged wife of poet T.S. Eliot in "Tom and Viv."
Other high-profile roles range from Ruth Ellis, the last woman hanged in England, in "Dance With a Stranger," to Rita Skeeter, the unabashedly sensationalistic tabloid journalist, in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."
"Very happy to be part of the history of the Potter canon. Fun!" Richardson exclaims, tabloid writing style.
credit BellSouth
Published: 3/21/06, 10:25 AM EDT
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Grief, both personal and public, is at the heart of BBC America's upcoming romantic drama "Gideon's Daughter."
The time and place for this original TV movie is 1997 London - when a Labor government had just taken over after 18 years of Conservative rule, and when much-adored Princess Diana was killed in a car crash.
"It was a moment of great change, or seemingly it was going to be, and also Diana's death turned it into this extraordinary un-English explosion of ostentatious grief, which people didn't think the Brits did," says "Gideon's" writer and director, Stephen Poliakoff. "That was a shock to everyone, including me."
Against this backdrop, Poliakoff - who likes writing "about the recent past" - has set an intimate romance with underlying themes about "parents' fears for their children" and "the cult of celebrity."
The story explores the emotional crises of Gideon (Bill Nighy), a public relations guru who advises stars and politicians, and Stella (Miranda Richardson), who works the night shift at a convenience store and is not "remotely interested in celebrity."
Gideon is anguished over his estrangement from his college-age daughter. Stella is heartbroken from the death of her young son. Together this unlikely pair finds some comfort.
Both Nighy and Richardson previously worked for Poliakoff on the PBS drama "The Lost Prince," which last fall won the Emmy for outstanding miniseries.
Richardson says she likes Poliakoff's work because, "It's odd and it's more real than real. He's passionate about it and he celebrates humanity in all its weirdnesses."
She also calls him a "historian," who "can look across and make sense of events in a very personal way. He deals with minutia, the things that happen on the periphery of big events ... I think he has an uncanny knack for capturing times."
"Gideon's Daughter," premiering March 23 at 10 p.m. EST, was filmed in London and Scotland. However permission was denied for shooting in Kensington Gardens, the royal park where the banks and banks of flowers in tribute to Diana had been stacked. A park owned by a local London council was the substitute, with real flowers used in the re-creation; nothing computer generated.
"Big notices were put up by the location manager saying, 'This is only for a drama,'" Poliakoff explains. "There were arrows pointing to me if they wanted to ask any questions, but nobody got upset."
Richardson, 48, thinks Poliakoff cast her as Stella because "There's a kind of openness, hopefully, that I give off ... and he likes the way I dress and encouraged me to incorporate it."
The melange of clothing and jewelry the actress wears on this day - a mix of designer and catch-as-catch-can - certainly works as an eye-catching symbol of her unconventional personality.
"Miranda's a very strong and very individualistic person off screen, but she's very content on the set. She loves to act. She's very little trouble ... very unstarry, quite content to sit and wait. She's very fulfilled on film," says the 53-year-old Poliakoff.
Often cast as "witches, bad people, or neurotics," Poliakoff says he was delighted to offer the actress a character who is so positive, despite her tragedy.
Although Richardson has no recollection of the moment, she's been told that as a young child, she "very determinedly" announced she would be an actor. She says that according to her older sister, she was always something of a drama queen.
She's played many a queen since in a range of roles that includes not just Queen Mary but an outrageous spoof of Elizabeth I given to uttering remarks like "I'm going to execute the whole bally lot of you," in the "Black Adder" TV series.
She was nominated for an Oscar in 1992 for her supporting role as the angry jilted wife in "Damage" and for best actress in 1994 as the emotionally damaged wife of poet T.S. Eliot in "Tom and Viv."
Other high-profile roles range from Ruth Ellis, the last woman hanged in England, in "Dance With a Stranger," to Rita Skeeter, the unabashedly sensationalistic tabloid journalist, in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."
"Very happy to be part of the history of the Potter canon. Fun!" Richardson exclaims, tabloid writing style.
credit BellSouth