Peter Firth #2

[Tea Lady]

My goodness, he does look nice there. More relaxed, certainly. He can keep my powder puff

He knows how to keep the H/R fans hanging though with those little words of hope.

Loved the episode of South Riding last night. Thought it was a little better than the first episode. I have not read the book but I am getting the impression that they are cutting quite large chunks out though. I guess South Riding may be another victim of reduced funding. A few years ago, it may have been 6 episodes instead of 3. Loved Peter, but not much screen time again. I think Edgar got more screen time and those meow's were definitely fake

[Agent Acme]

Yay, S9 DVD arrived this morning...at last!
S9 DVD extras...
oooo loved the interview Peter and Nicola did on the dvd, its just great....

[lottanyman]

I'd love to watch the second episode of South Riding now but sadly the iPlayer is not working for me...guess I have to watch the latest interview with Peter a few times instead...

[Naivety]

Just watched the interview posted above. Now THAT was a good interview! Great questions. It took a female interviewer to finally ask about Harry and Ruth.

I'm enjoying South Riding very much. It amazes me how when I watch PF in this I actually have to remind myself that he's Harry Pearce. I think his character is very well done, his accent seems just a stronger version of his ordinary speech. A bit like Dawn French's BBC Westo accent is a beefed up, exagerated version of her natural Devon accent.

I wasn't expecting to see much of him, but his part is quite key to the story, I think we'll see more of him in episode 3. And he was so camp with that cat!

[Silktie]

Lovely interview, thanks for posting. Haha, he does like telling that story about how he and NW made up the whole thing. It's another example of the magic he talks about - the storyline is based on the natural chemistry between the two, and wasn't forced on us by being scripted at first.

Also found it interesting that he said Harry is revaluating how he's being used by the state because he's reached a certain age.

[DogSoSmall]

Yes, that was a much better second interview (the fan-work obviously did the trick as well!). Sorry, but I just can't stop thinking, what a gorgeous man!

Don't know how much to say about the dvd interview if people haven't seen it yet, except that it was completely charming. The interesting thing is that even Peter and Nicola can't agree on whether Harry would have given up Albany if it had been real, so what chance do we have?! Did enjoy Nicola's crossed fingers at the possibility of a chance to snog Peter!!!

[lottanyman]

(01-03-2011 08:18 AM)DogSoSmall Wrote:  Don't know how much to say about the dvd interview if people haven't seen it yet, except that it was completely charming.

Oh my! Now I’m really really looking forward to watching the DVD!! Can't wait to get home to see if it has been delivered today, now this will be a very long day at work…

Though watching all these nice interviews at the moments makes me almost wish the DVD would not have been released now but only shortly before series 10 will be broadcast. Such a long wait until then…

[Nixie]

I've just discovered that Peter Firth played Angel Clare in Tess!

I'm so shocked. I HATED him in that role. I remember wagging school to go and see the movie - way back when it was released in the late 70s ... or possibly in 80. Anyway, I'd read the book and had really strong visual images already. And when I saw Angel, he just looked all wrong to me. I could barely watch those scenes and ended up hating the movie mainly because of Angel. I've never watched the movie again, and 30 years later (is it really that long?) I still get a really strong emotional response to that memory!

Had no idea the same actor played Harry! The funny thing is I think he's perfect as Harry - can't imagine anyone else playing him. Just weird to discover such disparate reactions to the same actor playing different roles!

[picard1109]

Nixie: yes, it's always difficult when you read a book and cast the part, then the 'wrong' actor plays it in the film! Even so, I thought PF was rather charming in Tess, although I probably saw it around the same time you did and haven't watched it since.

If you liked the book, pick up PF's reading of Tess of the D'Urbervilles - it's very good. Makes even Hardy pallatable! It's fairly easy to get hold of cheaply on Ebay, etc. but if you don't have any luck and want to borrow mine, PM me.

[lottanyman]

(28-02-2011 08:01 PM)Tea Lady Wrote:  Loved the episode of South Riding last night. Thought it was a little better than the first episode. I have not read the book but I am getting the impression that they are cutting quite large chunks out though. I guess South Riding may be another victim of reduced funding. A few years ago, it may have been 6 episodes instead of 3. Loved Peter, but not much screen time again. I think Edgar got more screen time and those meow's were definitely fake

It's true that they cut out quite large bits of the book to fit it into the 3 hour frame but astonishingly they have kept very true to the book until now.

The advantage here is that there are so many characters and stories in the book that it's quite easy to leave some of them out and to shorten it for TV without touching the story of the characters which they have decided to be important for the TV version.

I haven't yet watched the second episode but as far as I could see from the first one they have for example left out the story of a publican and his wife and also that of the Holly's neighbours. In the book these take quite a bit of space and are of course also a bit woven into some of the lives of the remaining characters of the TV South Riding but you can leave them out without problem.

Anyhow 5 or 6 episodes would have been better of course.