Sapientia Et Veritas, Et Non
"Today is born the seventh one
Born of woman the seventh son
And he in turn of a seventh son
He has the power to heal
He has the gift of the second sight
He is the chosen one
So it shall be written
So it shall be done"
You might've guessed it: We are on the 7th prompt post. Hurray!
And although seven is "the most magical number there is", the rules for ( Read more... )
For the Radio Times online
Posted at 10:02pm
28 September 2010
by PaulJones-RT
Being invited onto the set of the longest running BBC programme revolving around the business of politics led me to expect some form of decorum. Clearly, I was expecting too much, as I wheedled around endless moving chairs and dipping lights, directors yelling from gantries as the House of Commons set itself - as poignant a location in the British subconscious as the Queen Vic, Coronation Street or the TARDIS - started to be torn apart and put back together daubed in red for today's last day of shooting the "Labour" Conference . Escaping into the dressing room which I was due to hold my interview in gave me no solace from the rush; the cast is huge and everyone is after the mirror.
In the corner, I spotted my target. Benjamin Harris, who plays Ed Miliband (and who now, after the character's election to leader of his party, gains the second credit in the show's titles), holding conversation with Daniel Stewart (George Osborne).
"Conference," Harris said into the mirror, focusing intently. "Conference."
"Less lisp," Stewart directed. "If you sound like tha', no one'll believe he doesnae dribble food all over himself, let alone got himself elected."
The last day of filming on any set is an interesting one, but for the cast and I there was an extra glimmer of excitement. We had been put under a blanket ban of mentioning the winner of this contest, so much so that I was forbidden from submitting this very article to my editor until the show had aired. I understand now why. The Battle of The Brothers reached a peak of 5.1 million viewers and I heard tea mugs shattering across the country as Ed surpassed his brother David to the leadership with an overly dramatic slim majority. I had found out that Ed would win only three hours before the beginning of filming, and I was press. We are usually briefed first.
"It's difficult to explain exactly what it feels like to win," Harris tells me as we stand to the side of the set, watching the technical run through of the mechanically untrustworthy and gratuitous rising lectern. "I feel some pride, but I'm also worried for the character. I'm not a comedian; I try to play Ed straight and thoughtful, just a little emotionally confused. If Matthew [Garrett - head writer] decides to make me some sort of Kinnock character, I don't know if I'll be able to pull it off without it being a caricature. "
I point out that his own lack of self confidence seems reflected in his character. Harris laughs.
"Well, we've all put a lot of ourselves into these characters. We feel their highs and lows, as it were."
As the director ushers Harris to his place, I move off into the canteen, where most of the actors warming their hands over cups of warm coffee are of the Conservative and Liberal persuasion. I sit on a table with Daniel Stewart and James Bartlett, who plays the Prime Minister David Cameron. I'm a television journalist, but even I find it disconcerting to hear Bartlett collapse into fits of giggles at one of Stewart's jokes in a very un-Tory way.
I mention to them Harris' worries over the character's caricature conundrum. Bartlett nods thoughtfully.
"Yes, there is a bit of a separation between the characters that are comedy creations with depth added in after and fully fleshed out characters who occasionally do humorous things," Bartlett confirms. "Labour tends to have more in the latter category. Apart from Boris, of course."
"There's nothing wrong with being a comedy character, depending on whether you embrace them or not," Stewart points out. "If you're a comedian like Phillip [Johnson - Now Shadow Home Secretary Ed Balls] you'll know to run for the laughs 'cause comic relief hardly ever gets cut. If you're a serious actor like Kenneth [Samson, who plays Business Secretary Vince Cable] then you can pull off being jolly but utterly serious at the same time."
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"Well, I have a folder this thick of backstory," Bartlett laughs, miming a book the size of the average bible. "That's usually a good indication that I'm a serious character."
"Whereas I have a stupid name, a stupid voice and an expression that goes like this," Stewart begins, and then trails off as his eyes glaze over and he goes into a coma-like stupor which worries me, only slightly, until he darts his eyes back up to me and grins.
I walk around the set for a while, being offered opportunities I cannot bare to pass up (a look into the prop cupboard where they place the mace when not in use; the costume department; the gallery, where I watch the five leadership contenders on screen are switching between telling jokes and filming scenes) and occasionally talking to extras. Anyone who is awarded the chance to play an MP jumps at it, even if they are only to ask a question in the house, very aware that the nature of HoC casting means the MPs are always looked at first for interesting scandal story lines. The "Expenses Scandal" storyline which covered a large part of the last series and is still occasionally brought up allowed many complete unknowns a shot at fame before their characters were cast into the fiery pit of the General Election. I ask an extra whether she feels the huge cast and large turnover wears down her chances at making it to the big time.
"Probably," she says, shrugging. "But that's the way it is. That's why the show's lived for so long. The drama of the Election Night Specials wouldn't be the same if everyone knew the best loved characters would be getting out fine."
The day wraps up with Benjamin Harris' speech to conference, which I watch next to the Head Writer Matthew Garrett, staring into the barrel of a screen.
"Why's he lisping so much?" a producer hisses into Harris' ear.
"It's endearing," Garrett explains with a smirk. He presses the button for talkback when Harris takes a scheduled pause. "Benji, less of the dork. He's supposed to be a leader."
"No, I'm supposed to be the leader!" the entire front row of the Labour Conference shout, turning around and (in two cases) swearing at the Head Writer.
I'm slightly shocked, but Garrett only laughs. He sees my open mouth and shrugs his shoulder.
"We're a family," he explains. "It's just what we do."
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BEST. EVER. I LIKE SCOTTISH GEORGE OSBORNE. I LIKE HIM A LOT.
And EMil's actor's lack of self-confidence, d'awwww!
This article ...er, fic, was just perfection itself. The funny goofy side of THoC. *draws hearts around them omfg*
SO MUCH YAY FOR THIS UNIVERSE.
-writer of the 2nd fill & the feminist fic-article
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