West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End.^[1] Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London.^[1]

Total attendances first surpassed 12 million in 2002 and 13 million in 2007,^[2] setting a new record for the West End. Since the late 1990s there has been an increase in the number of famous screen actors on the London stage.

History[link]

The Theatre in London flourished after the English Reformation. The first permanent public playhouse, known simply as The Theatre, was constructed in 1576 in Shoreditch by James Burbage. It was soon joined by The Curtain. Both are known to have been used by William Shakespeare's company. In 1599, the timber from The Theatre was moved to Southwark, where it was used in building the Globe Theatre in a new theatre district formed, beyond the controls of the City corporation. These theatres were closed in 1642 during the interregnum.

At the restoration (1660), two companies were licensed to perform, the Duke's Company and the King's Company. Performances were held in converted buildings, such as Lisle's Tennis Court. The first West End theatre, known as Theatre Royal in Bridges Street, was designed by Thomas Killigrew and built on the site of the present Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It opened on 7 May 1663 and was destroyed by a fire nine years later. It was replaced by a new structure designed by Christopher Wren and renamed the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.^[3][4]

Outside the West End, Sadler's Wells Theatre opened in Islington on 3 June 1683. Taking its name from founder Richard Sadler and monastic springs that were discovered on the property,^[5][6] it operated as a 'Musick House,' with performances of opera; as it was not licensed for plays. In the West End, the Haymarket Theatre opened on 29 December 1720 on a site slightly north of its current location, and the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden opened in Covent Garden on 7 December 1732.

The Patent theatre companies retained their duopoly on drama well into the 19th century, and all other theatres could perform only musical entertainments. By the early 19th century, however, music hall entertainments became popular, and presenters found a loophole in the restrictions on non-patent theatres in the genre of melodrama. Melodrama did not break the Patent Acts, as it was accompanied by music. Initially, these entertainments were presented in large halls, attached to public houses, but purpose-built theatres began to be established in the East End at Shoreditch and Whitechapel.

The West End theatre district became established with the opening of many small theatres and halls, including the Adelphi in The Strand on 17 November 1806. South of the River Thames, the Old Vic, Waterloo Road, opened on 11 May 1818. The expansion of the West End theatre district gained pace with the Theatres Act 1843; which relaxed the conditions for the performance of plays, and The Strand gained another venue when the Vaudeville opened on 16 April 1870. The next few decades saw the opening of many new theatres in the West End. The Criterion Theatre opened on Piccadilly Circus on 21 March 1874, and in 1881, two more houses appeared: the Savoy Theatre in The Strand, built by Richard D'Oyly Carte specifically to showcase the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, opened on 10 October (the first theatre to be lit by cooler, cleaner electric lights), and five days later the Comedy Theatre opened as the Royal Comedy Theatre on Panton Street in Leicester Square. It abbreviated its name three years later.^[4] The theatre building boom continued until about World War I.

Among the noted performers who began their careers in the early days of West End theatre are Robert William Elliston, John Liston, Nell Gwynne, Lennie Dean and later Henry Irving, Ellen Terry, John Lawrence Toole, Nellie Farren, Marie Tempest, Seymour Hicks, Ellaline Terriss, and Marie Brema.

The London Opera Glass Company was founded in 1913 and has provided operas glasses for many West End theatres.^[7][8]

During the 1950s and 1960s, many plays were produced in theatre clubs, in order to evade the censorship then exercised by the Lord Chamberlain's Office. The Theatres Act 1968 finally abolished censorship of the stage in the United Kingdom.

Since the 1990s, there has been a growing tendency for film actors to play in West End productions.

Theatreland[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The Lyceum Theatre, home to Disney's The Lion King.^[8]

Now^[when?] rebranded — by Westminster council and the Society of London Theatre — as 'Theatreland,' London's main theatre district, which contains approximately forty venues, is located in the heart of the West End of central London, and is traditionally defined by The Strand to the south, Oxford Street to the north, Regent Street to the west, and Kingsway to the east. Prominent theatre streets include Drury Lane, Shaftesbury Avenue, and The Strand. The works staged are predominantly musicals, classic or middle-brow plays, and comedy performances.

Beyond the West End are the Royal National Theatre and Old Vic, in Southwark; and the Barbican Theatre, in the City of London. London also has many smaller theatres, both around the West End and its periphery.

Many theatres in the West End are of late Victorian or Edwardian construction and are privately owned. The majority of them have great character, and the largest and best maintained feature grand neo-classical, Romanesque, or Victorian façades and luxurious, detailed interior design and decoration. On the other hand, leg room is often cramped, and audience facilities such as bars and toilets are often much smaller than in modern theatres. The protected status of the buildings and their confined urban locations, combined with financial constraints, make it is very difficult to make substantial improvements to the level of comfort offered. In 2004, it was estimated an investment of £250 million was required for modernisation, and the theatre owners unsuccessfully requested tax concessions to help them meet the costs.

Long-running shows[link]

The length of West End shows depend on ticket sales. Musicals tend to have longer runs than dramas. The longest-running musical in West End history is Les Misérables. It overtook Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, which closed in 2002 after running for 8,949 performances and 21 years, as the longest-running West End musical of all time on 8 October 2006. Other long-runners include Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera and Willy Russell's Blood Brothers which have also subsequently overtaken Cats. However the non-musical Agatha Christie play The Mousetrap is the longest-running show in the world, and has been showing since 1952.

The St Martin's Theatre, home to The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the world.

• The Mousetrap at the St Martin's Theatre – opened 25 November 1952 originally at the Ambassadors Theatre^[9] – 60th year
• Les Misérables at the Queen's Theatre – opened 8 October 1985 originally at the Palace Theatre – 27th year
• The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre – opened 9 October 1986^[10] – 26th year
• Blood Brothers at the Phoenix Theatre – opened 28 July 1988 originally at the Albery Theatre^[11] – 24th year
• The Woman in Black at the Fortune Theatre opened 15 February 1989 originally at the Strand Theatre^[12] – 23rd year
• Cats – opened 11 May 1981 at the New London Theatre and closed 11 May 2002 on its 21st anniversary
• Starlight Express – opened 27 March 1984 at the Apollo Victoria Theatre and closed 12 January 2002^[13] – 17 years
• No Sex Please, We're British – opened 3 June 1971 at the Strand Theatre and closed 16 January 1987^[13] – 16 years
• Chicago at the Garrick Theatre originally at the Adelphi Theatre – opened 18 November 1997 - 15th year
• Mamma Mia! at the Prince of Wales Theatre – opened 6 April 1999 originally at the Prince Edward Theatre – 13th year
• Disney's The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre – opened 19 October 1999 – 13th year
• Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story – opened 12 October 1989 at the Victoria Palace Theatre, transferred to the Novello Theatre October 1995 and closed 19 May 2002^[13] – 12 years
• We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre – 14 May 2002 – 11th year
• The Black and White Minstrel Show – opened in 1962 at the Victoria Palace Theatre and closed about 1972^[13] – 10 years
• Miss Saigon – opened 20 September 1989 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and closed 30 October 1999^[13] – 10 years
• Stomp now at the Ambassadors Theatre opened 25 September 2002 at the Vaudeville Theatre – 9th year
• Jesus Christ Superstar – opened 9 August 1972 at the Palace Theatre and closed about 1980^[13] – 8 years
• Me and My Girl (revival) – opened 12 February 1985 at the Adelphi Theatre and closed 16 January 1993^[13] – 8 years
• Aldwych Farces (revue) – opened in 1925 at the Aldwych Theatre and closed in 1933 – 8 years
• Evita – opened 21 January 1978 at the Prince Edward Theatre and closed on 8 February 1986^[13] – 7 years
• There's A Girl In My Soup – opened June 1966 at the Globe Theatre. Closed in 1973 after over a thousand performances – 6½ years
• Billy Elliot the Musical – opened May 2005 at the Victoria Palace Theatre – 7th year
• Wicked – opened 27 September 2006 at the Apollo Victoria Theatre – 6th year
• The 39 Steps - opened 30 September 2006 at the Criterion Theatre - 6th Year
• Oliver! – opened in 1960 at the New Theatre and closed about 1966^[13] – 6 years

List of West End theatres[link]

• If no show is currently running, the play listed is the next show planned (dates marked with an *)
• If the next show planned is not announced, the applicable columns are left blank

Upcoming productions[link]

• Spamalot, Harold Pinter Theatre
• Soul Sister, Savoy Theatre
• Constellations, Duke of York's Theatre
• One Man, Two Guvnors, Theatre Royal, Haymarket
• Private Peaceful, Theatre Royal, Haymarket
• Cabaret, Savoy Theatre
• Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer LIVE!, Apollo Theatre
• Chicken, Trafalgar Studios 2
• A Walk On Part - The Fall of New Labour, Arts Theatre
• The Bodyguard, Adelphi Theatre
• Uncle Vanya in Russian, Noël Coward Theatre
• Let It Be, Prince of Wales Theatre
• Derren Brown: Svengali, Novello Theatre
• Jumpy, Duke of York's Theatre
• Paul Merton - Out of My Head, Vaudeville Theatre
• Gatz, Noël Coward Theatre
• Much Ado About Nothing, Noël Coward Theatre
• Julius Caeser, Noël Coward Theatre
• Mamma Mia!, Novello Theatre

London's non-commercial theatres[link]

The exterior of the Old Vic

It should be noted that the term West End Theatre is sometimes used to refer specifically to commercial productions in Theatreland. However the leading non-commercial (usually government subsidised) theatres in London, such as the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Globe Theatre, the Old Vic, the Young Vic, the Royal Court Theatre, the Hampstead Theatre, the Almeida Theatre, and the Open Air Theatre, most of which are not located in Theatreland, arguably enjoy greater artistic prestige. These theatres stage a higher proportion of more demanding work, including Shakespeare, other classic plays and premieres of new plays by leading highbrow playwrights. Hit plays from the non-commercial theatres sometimes transfer to one of the commercial Theatreland houses for an extended second run.

The Royal Opera House is one of London's most famous theatres and widely regarded as one of the greatest opera houses in the world, comparable with the Palais Garnier, La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera House, New York. Commonly known simply as Covent Garden due to its location, it is unique among West End theatres in many ways, not least in having three resident performance companies, The Royal Ballet, Royal Opera and a resident symphony orchestra. It has three performance spaces (19th Century Main Auditorium, Linbury Theatre and Clore Studio) and hosts guest performances from other leading opera, ballet and performance companies from around the world.

Producing houses[link]

While the vast majority of West End theatres are receiving houses (houses that receive productions from elsewhere), there are a number of established producing houses, both within the heart of the West End and in other parts of London. Some of the more famous ones are listed:

• Almeida Theatre
• Barbican Centre
• Bush Theatre
• Donmar Warehouse
• Hampstead Theatre
• Lyric Hammersmith
• Old Vic
• Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park
• Rose Theatre, Kingston
• Royal Court Theatre
• Royal National Theatre
• Shakespeare's Globe
• Young Vic

Other London theatre[link]

There is a great deal of theatre in London outside of the West End. Much of this is known as fringe theatre which is the equivalent of Off Broadway Theatre in New York. Fringe venues range from well-equipped small theatres to rooms above pubs, and the performances range from classic plays, to cabaret, to plays in the languages of London's ethnic minorities. The performers range from emerging young professionals to amateurs.

There are many theatres located throughout Greater London, staging a wide variety of work, such as the New Wimbledon Theatre, the Ashcroft Theatre in Croydon, and the Churchill Theatre in Bromley.

Awards[link]

There are a number of annual awards for outstanding achievements in London theatre:

• Laurence Olivier Awards
• Evening Standard Awards
• London Critics' Circle Theatre Awards
• National Dance Awards
• West End Cares Awards
• Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice Awards

See also[link]

London portal

• List of London theatres
• List of West End musicals
• List of notable musical theatre productions
• Musical theatre

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Society of London Theatre – trade body for the London theatre industry

Coordinates: 51°30′41″N 0°07′41″W / 51.51139°N 0.12806°W / 51.51139; -0.12806

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (December 2010)

Sylvia Young OBE (born 1939) is the founder and principal of Sylvia Young Theatre School in London, England.

Sylvia Young Theatre School[link]

Young founded her theatre school in 1981 in Drury Lane, London, before moving to its current Marylebone premises in 1983.^[1][2] The school is co-educational and provides a combination of academic and vocational classes for children aged 10 to 16 years. The academic curriculum encompasses GCSEs, while the vocational curriculum teaches acting, dance and music. Many SYTS students have gone on to become successful in the performing arts world, including Amy Winehouse, Denise Van Outen, Billie Piper, former Spice Girl Emma Bunton, I Am Number Four star Alex Pettyfer, Dawn from EastEnders Kara Tointon, Stacey from EastEnders Lacey Turner, Chenelle Olaiya, McFly member Tom Fletcher, ex Busted bass player Matt Willis, member of The Saturdays, Vanessa White and member of The Wanted, Nathan Sykes. The film High School Musical 3 features an SYTS pupil, Jemma McKenzie-Brown.

Family[link]

Young has two children, former actresses Frances Ruffelle and Alison Ruffelle. Young's granddaughter is pop singer Eliza Doolittle.^[3]

Styles and honours[link]

Young was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 2005 for her services to the arts.^[4][5]

References[link]

1. ^ "Blonde ambition". The Guardian. 18 May 1999. http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/1999/may/19/features11.g27. Retrieved 8 April 2012. 
2. ^ Sylvia Young Theatre School - Full Time School
3. ^ "Eliza Doolittle lives with mum". Belfast Telegraph. 28 July 2010. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/music/news/eliza-doolittle-lives-with-mum-14890128.html. Retrieved 8 April 2012. 
4. ^ Welham, Jamie; Moore-Bridger, Benedict (19 September 2008). "Theatre school of the stars is on the move". London Evening Standard. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/theatre-school-of-the-stars-is-on-the-move-6903927.html. Retrieved 8 April 2012. 
5. ^ "Chief becomes Sir". SomethingJewish. 6 November 2005. http://www.somethingjewish.co.uk/articles/1493_chief_becomes_sir.htm. Retrieved 8 April 2012. 

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Dominic West
Dominic West, September 2008
Born	(1969-10-15) 15 October 1969 (age 42) Sheffield, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1991–present
Spouse	Catherine Fitzgerald (2010–present)

Dominic Gerard Fe West (born 15 October 1969) is an English actor best known for his role as Detective Jimmy McNulty in the HBO drama series The Wire.

Career[link]

Film and TV[link]

West made his debut in 1991 in a short called 3 Joes.^{[citation needed]} His other screen appearances include True Blue, Chicago and Mona Lisa Smile. His most notable television role has been Baltimore police detective Jimmy McNulty on the HBO television police drama The Wire. West was praised for the accuracy of his character's accent.^[1][2]

During his stint on The Wire, West directed the season 5 episode, "Took".

In film, he portrayed the heavy metal guitarist Kirk Cuddy in the 2001 film Rock Star. In 2006 West made a guest appearance as an actor in a sketch in The Catherine Tate Show, alongside "Frankie Howerd impressionist". In 2007, he played the Spartan politician Theron in 300. West also starred in the 1999 film version of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream as Lysander.

West appeared in the role of Oliver Cromwell in the Channel 4 series The Devil's Whore. West played the villain, Jigsaw, in the 2008 film Punisher: War Zone. He also features in "Dr. West", the opening track on Eminem's 2009 album Relapse, as a doctor discharging Eminem from a rehab facility. West played the part over the phone in January 2009 while Eminem was recording it in a Miami studio.^[3]

In December 2009, he starred as Hank in a radio adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's expressionist play The Hairy Ape for BBC Radio 3,^[4] was a guest presenter on the BBC show Have I Got News for You, and ended the year alongside Joan Rivers and Sarah Jessica Parker with an appearance on Graham Norton's New Year's Eve Show.^[5] West portrayed General Virilus in Neil Marshall's adventure thriller Centurion^[6] and stars in the UK Ghost film The Awakening.^[7]

In 2011, West appeared as a news presenter on the BBC-TV period drama series The Hour. He also filmed Appropriate Adult, a series about serial killer Fred West which focuses on the events between the Wests' arrests in 1994, and Fred's suicide in Birmingham's Winson Green Prison on New Year's Day, 1995. His physical resemblance to West was noted during filming and Fred West's daughter Mae West thought he captured the "evil essence of him - his character, his mannerisms, even his gait." Janet Leach found it difficult to approach Dominic in character on set because he was so convincing that it took Leach back 17 years.^[8] The series aired on ITV on 4 and 11 September as a two part 90 minute special. Dominic West also said "I have this recurring dream where I'm perched on a wall and Fred West is trying to grab me and pull me down,".

Theatre[link]

As a theatre actor, West has appeared as Konstantin in the Peter Hall-directed The Seagull (1996) at the Old Vic.^{[citation needed]} In 2005, he returned to the stage to play Orlando in David Lan's As You Like It at the Wyndham's Theatre in London.^{[citation needed]} He played Edward in Harley Granville Barker's The Voysey Inheritance directed by Peter Gill at the Royal National Theatre in 2006.^[9] In late 2006 and early 2007, he played the lead role of Jan in Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll in London's West End.^{[citation needed]}

Continuing his theatre work, he starred at London's Donmar Warehouse as the protagonist in Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s existential drama Life is a Dream, for which he received glowing reviews.^[10]

In February 2011, it was announced that he would take on the title role in Simon Gray's classic comedy, Butley, playing at the Duchess Theatre in London from 1 June 2011^[11] and in the September he returned to his native Sheffield to play Iago to his former Wire co-star Clarke Peters's Othello at the Crucible Theatre.^[12]

Advertising[link]

In 2009, West starred in a series of online films known as "The Carte Noire Readers". Made to promote French coffee brand Carte Noire, they consist of actors reading love scenes from a selection of sources. West reads extracts from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence; High Fidelity by Nick Hornby; The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton; Life Class by Pat Barker; The Moment You Were Gone by Nicci Gerrard; and Something Childish But Very Natural by Katherine Mansfield.^[13]

Personal life[link]

West was born into an Irish Catholic family^[14][15] in Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, the son of George West, who owned a plastics factory, and Moya, a housewife.^[16] West attended Eton College and Trinity College, Dublin.^[14][17][18] Dominic West graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, in 1995.^{[citation needed]}

In 1998 West and Polly Astor (the daughter of Michael Astor) had a daughter named Martha, who appeared in the film Creation in 2009 alongside Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly.^[19][20]

West and Catherine FitzGerald became engaged in 2007, and married in Glin, County Limerick, Ireland, on 26 June 2010.^[21] They have three children together: Dora, Senan and Francis.^{[citation needed]} Catherine FitzGerald is an Anglo-Irish aristocrat, being the daughter of Desmond FitzGerald, the 29th Knight of Glin, and was formerly married to The 7th Earl of Durham, then Viscount Lambton.^[14][22]

In November 2010, West was awarded an honorary degree for services to the Arts by Sheffield Hallam University.^[23]

In November 2011, West was also awarded the Honorary Patronage of the Philosophical Society of Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated from with a degree in English in previous years.^[24]

Films[link]

• 3 Joes (1991)
• Richard III (1995)
• True Blue (1996)
• Surviving Picasso (1996)
• The Gambler (1997)
• Diana & Me (1997)
• Spice World (1997)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)
• Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)
• A Christmas Carol (1999)
• 28 Days (2000)
• The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (2001)
• Rock Star (2001)
• Ten Minutes Older (2002)
• Chicago (2002)
• Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
• The Forgotten (2004)
• Hannibal Rising (2007)
• 300 (2007)
• Punisher: War Zone (2008)
• Centurion (2010)
• Jackboots on Whitehall (2010)
• From Time to Time (2010)
• Johnny English Reborn (2011)
• Arthur Christmas (2011)
• The Awakening (2011)
• John Carter (2012)

Television[link]

• The Wire (2002–08)
• The Catherine Tate Show (Guest Appearance as the Actor) (2006)
• The Devil's Whore (2008)
• Breaking the Mould: The Story of Penicillin (2009)
• Have I Got News For You (Guest Host) (2009)
• The Hour (2011)
• Appropriate Adult (2011)
• Children of the Tsunami (Narrator) (2012)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Dominic West at the Internet Movie Database
• Dominic West talks about his work with Eminem on Relapse

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (October 2009)

Paul McGann
Born	(1959-11-14) 14 November 1959 (age 52) Liverpool, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1986—present
Spouse	Annie Milner (1992-2006)
Children	2

Paul McGann (born 14 November 1959) is an English actor who made his name on the BBC serial The Monocled Mutineer, in which he played the lead role. He is also known for his role in Withnail and I, and for portraying the Eighth Doctor in the 1996 Doctor Who television movie and subsequent tie-in media.

Early life[link]

McGann was born in Kensington, Liverpool, England in 1959 into a Roman Catholic family^{[citation needed]}. His mother, Claire, was a teacher, and his father was a metallurgist.^[1] His parents encouraged him and his siblings to develop their talents from an early age. McGann's talents were further developed when he attended Cardinal Allen Grammar school in West Derby, Liverpool. One of McGann's teachers advised him to enter the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and to pursue a career as an actor. Acting on his teacher's advice, McGann enrolled at the Royal Academy and went on to enjoy a successful acting career spanning over two decades.

McGann is the third of six children in the McGann family. His mother had twin boys, Joseph and John, who were born in 1958, but John died shortly after birth. McGann has three younger siblings: Mark (born in 1961), Stephen (born in 1963) and Clare McGann (born in 1965). All three of his brothers are also actors and the four of them starred together (as four brothers) in the 1995 television TV serial The Hanging Gale about the Irish Famine. The same year he played the role as Grigori Potemkin in TV film Catherine The Great, with Mark and Stephen too. These brothers also formed the pop quartet The McGanns, releasing the single "Shame About the Boy". McGann's sister, Clare, is a programme finance manager for Five.

Career[link]

Early appearances[link]

[edit] Give us a Break

McGann's breakthrough role was Give us a Break devised by Geoff McQueen who also created the long running ITV series, The Bill. McGann played a good snooker player who got into scrapes with Robert Lindsay, who played his wideboy manager. The series was a comedy drama in the vein of the popular ITV series of the time, Minder. The series only lasted one series and it was concluded by a one off special.

[edit] The Monocled Mutineer

McGann's first major dramatic role was the infamous British deserter and criminal Percy Toplis in the 1986 BBC serial The Monocled Mutineer. The film was based on the 1978 book of the same name, which was written by William Alison and John Fairley.

Although McGann received praises for his dramatic performance, the drama was never re-broadcast on the BBC. This is because the BBC came under fire from the Conservative Government due to the sensitivity of the subject matter of the Étaples Mutiny in 1919 at "The Bull Ring", a harsh British Army training ground in Étaples, France. The events that transpired at the Bull Ring remain debated, and documents concerning the occurrences there will remain sealed until 2017. They claimed that the film was inaccurate and displayed a "Left-wing bias". Toplis was a mysterious figure and the film, as well as the book, depicted him as an active participant of the Etaples Mutiny, before he was tracked down and killed some years after the end of World War I. As a result, a minor political crisis in Britain was launched which prompted the BBC to remove all planned repeat screenings of the film. Despite the banning controversy, The Monocled Mutineer was released by the BBC on video in the early 1990s, and on DVD in 2007.

Film career[link]

Following on from that part of Percy Toplis, McGann sought a less controversial and more comedic role for his next project. In 1986, he was cast as the eponymous "I" in Bruce Robinson's cult film comedy, Withnail and I. He also starred as Anton Skrebensky in Ken Russell's 1989 adaptation of D. H. Lawrence's The Rainbow. McGann's other early film appearances include The Monk, Dealers, Tree of Hands and the epic war film Empire of the Sun. McGann and other young British actors who were becoming established film actors such as Tim Roth, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Bruce Payne were dubbed the 'Brit Pack'.^[2]

Since 1989, McGann has concentrated primarily on television work, including Nice Town and Nature Boy for the BBC, and The One That Got Away and the second series of Hornblower for ITV. However, he has had small roles in a number of high-profile American films like The Three Musketeers and Alien 3. His role in Alien 3 was originally larger, but much of it was edited out of the final print. The cut footage can be seen in the extended version of the film.

In 1993, he was cast as Richard Sharpe, the lead character in the Sharpe series of made-for-TV movies based on Bernard Cornwell's novels, however he injured his knee while playing football just days into filming Sharpe's Rifles in the Ukraine. He was replaced by Sean Bean and the role effectively kick-started Bean's career and is the one that he is most closely identified with. McGann's injury led to what was at the time the largest insurance settlement in British television history, a sum of £2,128,172^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Doctor Who (television film)

Paul McGann played the eighth incarnation of the Doctor in the Doctor Who 1996 television movie. The television movie also starred Eric Roberts, Daphne Ashbrook, and the outgoing Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy. McGann's brother, Mark McGann, also auditioned for the title role.

The Doctor Who television movie was a joint venture between the BBC, Universal Studios and the Fox Broadcasting Network. McGann had signed a contract to appear as the Eighth Doctor in a new Doctor Who series, if Fox or Universal exercised their option. Thus, the television movie was supposed to be a "back door pilot" in that, if it obtained respectable ratings, the new series would continue to be produced. The film was shown on 14 May 1996 in the US and on 27 May 1996 in the UK. Although it earned 9.08 million viewers and was very successful in the UK, ratings were very low in the United States. As a consequence, Fox did not exercise its option to pick up the series and Universal could not find another network interested in airing a new Doctor Who series. Thus no new series was produced until 2005, after all the contractual rights had returned to the BBC, and the movie became McGann's only televised appearance as the Eighth Doctor.

Although McGann played the Doctor on television only once, he gave permission for his likeness to be used on the covers of the BBC's Eighth Doctor novels and he has reprised the role of the Eighth Doctor in an extensive series of audio plays by Big Finish Productions.

Rumours abounded that Paul McGann would reprise the role of the eighth Doctor in a new series of television films, alongside the current television series.^[3] McGann has denied these rumours on the grounds of not having been asked back to play the part but if he were to be asked would be interested as long as he "didn't have to wear a wig".^[4] McGann has appeared again as the eighth Doctor in the BBC Radio 7 series Doctor Who in 2007 - 2010.^[5]

[edit] After Doctor Who

In the years following his appearance as the Doctor, Paul McGann continued to diversify his acting portfolio with the television and movie roles he accepted. In 1997 he appeared as a concerned father in the film FairyTale: A True Story and later that same year as Rob in Downtime, then in 1998 he appeared as Capt. Greville in The Dance of Shiva.

In the 2000s McGann's film appearances began to increase with films like My Kingdom (2001), Listening (2003) and Gypo (2005). Perhaps his most iconic role, since Doctor Who, came in 2002, when McGann appeared in the film adaptation of the third story from Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles, Queen of the Damned. McGann played the part of David Talbot, a member of the secret organisation The Talamasca, which researches and investigates the supernatural. Talbot has appeared in many of Rice's novels and has become a central character over the years. The film also starred Stuart Townsend, Marguerite Moreau and pop star Aaliyah. McGann has also been in demand for voice-over work in Britain in recent years, particularly on television documentaries and commercials.

In 2006, he appeared in the television drama Tripping Over. In 2007, McGann starred alongside Dervla Kirwan, Lorraine Ashbourne and David Bradley in BBC One drama True Dare Kiss, written by Debbie Horsfield. In 2010, McGann played a major role in a feature-length episode of long-running BBC mystery series Jonathan Creek, as well as appearing as a regular in the crime drama Luther. In 2011, McGann played a major role as an Assistant Commissioner with something to hide in the final episode of Waking The Dead. It was also announced that he will be featured in Simon Gray's Butley alongside Dominic West at the Duchess Theatre.^[6]

Audio books and voice work[link]

McGann is also known for audio book narration having read several Pat Barker and Bernard Cornwell novels. He narrated the abridged audiobook of Jeff Noon's 1993 cyberpunk classic Vurt.

McGann continues to play the Eighth Doctor on audio. McGann's first Big Finish audio play appearance was in 2001 in the story Storm Warning which featured Blake's 7 leading man, Gareth Thomas. McGann's main companions in the audio plays are Charley Pollard (played by India Fisher) and C'rizz (played by Conrad Westmaas). It was through the Big Finish audio plays that McGann's Doctor finally got a chance to face many of the classic Doctor Who villains like the Daleks (The Time of the Daleks) and the Cybermen (Sword of Orion).

Five Eighth Doctor dramas were broadcast in BBC 7's The 7th Dimension slot between August 2005 and January 2006. They were in release order, starting with Storm Warning, although Minuet in Hell was judged unsuitable for the timeslot, and skipped. Two more Eighth Doctor audios, Shada and The Chimes of Midnight were broadcast in December 2005 and January 2006; all six of these stories were rebroadcast on BBC7 beginning in July 2006. As of January 2007, a series of all-new plays starring McGann as the Eighth Doctor and Sheridan Smith as companion Lucie Miller is being broadcast on BBC7.

His voice also featured in the 1997 video game Ceremony of Innocence together with those of Isabella Rossellini and Ben Kingsley.

After hearing him sing in The Monocled Mutineer, composer Bernard J. Taylor invited McGann to create the role of Benedict in the concept studio recording of Much Ado, a musical based on of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. The recording also included top West End singers Claire Moore and Peter Karrie.

Personal life[link]

In 1992, McGann married Annie Milner, with whom he has two sons, Joe McGann (born in 1988) and Jake McGann (born in 1990).

He had a relationship with the actress Susannah Harker,^[7] beginning in 2006. They parted at the end of 2008.

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Paul McGann

• Paul McGann at the Internet Movie Database
• Paul McGann at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Talking Shop: Paul McGann interview at the BBC News website