Matthew Macfadyen says he has an open mind about poltergeists

ENFIELD INDEPENDENT
First published Wednesday 22 April 2015 in News
Last updated 04:58 Thursday 23 April 2015



Matthew Macfadyen plays Guy Lyon Playfair, who was sent to the Hodgsons house to investigate what was going on.

What attracted you to the project?

Timothy Spall and Rosie Cavaliero, both of whom I’ve worked with before. I worked with Tim on a Stephen Poliakoff drama called Perfect Strangers, and I did Little Dorrit with Rosie for the BBC. It always comes down to the script, though, which was well-written, fascinating and properly scary.

Were they the sort of scripts you could just rattle through?

 That’s my litmus test, how quickly I can get through them. You know it’s a chore when you think, oh, I could be doing something else right now.

The Enfield Haunting isn’t just a jolty story about a mean poltergeist, either, is it?

No, it’s nuanced and beautifully written. It’s not a documentary, but a dramatic retelling, so there are bits which are teased and pushed in certain directions for the purposes of telling a story. I love everything to do with Maurice and his daughter. If it hadn’t been so delicately handled, it could have been quite naff.

How much did you know about the Hodgson case before you signed on?

I didn’t know anything about it and, stupidly, I didn’t read The House is Haunted, the book by Guy Lyon Playfair that the series is based on. I came straight from Ripper Street on to this and was a bit frazzled. They kindly organised for me to meet the real Guy, though, which was interesting.

What did you make of him?

He’s in his 80s now and absolutely fascinating. It’s always daunting when you play someone who is real, although I’m not doing an impersonation, that’s not the gig. I’m just taking what I fancy. Saying that, I hope Guy isn’t too horrified at what he sees. I’ll have to write a letter of apology. The Hodgsons’ story is very divisive. Some people believe them, others think they made the whole thing up.

What’s your take?

I have an open mind. I think the sensible stance to take in this situation is to be agnostic and go, I just don’t know. I’ve never experienced anything like it, but I know plenty of people who have and they’re not gullible. There was definitely something going on, it’s just unexplained. I’m certainly not in the ‘that’s all cobblers’ camp. That would be very short-sighted.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.enfieldindependent.co.uk/news/12893746.Star_of_The_Enfield_Haunting_Matthew_Macfadyen_says_he_has_an_open_mind_about_poltergeists/

Spooky first trailer for Timothy Spall and Matthew Macfadyen drama The Enfield Haunting

RADIO TIMES
By Ben Dowell
Sunday 12 April 2015 at 09:00PM



Are you ready to be scared?

Here is the first look at new Sky Living drama The Enfield Haunting – and it may send a chill down your spine.

Starring Mr Turner's Timothy Spall alongside Ripper Street actor Matthew Macfadyen, the drama explores the supposedly genuine haunting of a small house in north London in the late 1970s.
Spall's character Maurice Grosse is a paranormal researcher drawn to the house on Green Street in Enfield after the tragic death of his daughter in a motorcycle accident.

He is joined in his quest to investigate the strange incidents at the address by his wife Betty, played by Truly, Madly, Deeply and The Village star Juliet Stevenson.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-04-12/spooky-first-trailer-for-timothy-spall-and-matthew-macfadyen-drama-the-enfield-haunting

Timothy Spall: I was terrified making new poltergeist drama The Enfield Haunting

RADIO TIMES
By Ben Dowell
Tuesday 7 April 2015 at 10:50AM



Playing a man who investigates ghosts can have its drawbacks, according to Timothy Spall – especially when it comes to going to bed at night.

Spall is starring alongside Ripper Street actor Matthew Macfadyen in The Enfield Haunting, Sky Living’s upcoming drama about the supposedly genuine haunting of a small house in north London in the late 1970s.

In preparation for the role, the Mr Turner actor met parapsychology investigator Guy Lyon Playfair who is played by Macfadyen in the series and who wrote the book This House is Haunted on which the drama is based.

According to Spall, the encounter calmed his terrors about taking on the job which he initially turned down because it “frightened the life out of me”.

“I asked him, ‘didn’t you worry that when you came back there would be demons sitting on your bed or something?’ and he said, ‘oh no, made a nice cup of tea, went to bed’.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-04-07/timothy-spall-i-was-terrified-making-new-poltergeist-drama-the-enfield-haunting

Sky ghost story to star Timothy Spall and Matthew Macfadyen

THE STAGE NEWS
By:  Matthew Hemley
September 11, 2014



Timothy Spall, Juliet Stevenson and Matthew Macfadyen are to star in a new three-part ghost story for Sky Living.

The drama, called The Enfield Haunting, will be directed by Kristoffer Nyholm, whose credits include Danish drama The Killing.



Produced by Eleven Films, it is based on the book This House is Haunted, by Guy Lyon Playfair, which has been adapted by Joshua St Johnston.

Spall said described the script as “full of emotional texture”.

“I am very much looking forward to working with the excellent team Sky Living and Eleven Films have assembled,” he said.

RED MORE HERE: http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2014/09/sky-ghost-story-star-timothy-spall-matthew-macfadyen/

Colin Firth helps the people speak (BBC)

30 November 2012 Last updated at 09:44 ET Help The battle to spread the rights of individuals by standing up against authority is the subject of a new project - The People Speak - backed by actor Colin Firth.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxHB8eRmXpA

READ MORE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-radio-and-tv-20296573

Naomi Watts stars as the British princess whose death in a Paris car crash made headlines around the world in 1997. (THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER)

LONDON -- The buzz biopic of British icon Princess Diana, starring Naomi Watts as the lady in question, has a new name.


Oliver Hirschbiegel's big-screen portrait, originally touted to buyers during Berlin and then Cannes this year as Caught in Flight, has been retitled as simply Diana.

Shooting on the film produced by U.K. production company Ecosse Films is under way, with Watts starring alongside Naveen Andrews, Douglas Hodge and Juliet Stevenson.



http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/princess-diana-biopic-caught-flight-345555

BRENDAN COYLE: Juliet Stevenson and Downton Abbey stars Brendan Coyle and Lesley Nichol among those to perform at The HighTide Festival in Halesworth By RICHARD WOOD Thursday, April 26, 2012 (EDP)

 Seventy-five of the country’s top actors and actresses will be in Halesworth next week as the annual HighTide Festival returns.

Among them will be Downton Abbey stars Brendan Coyle and Lesley Nichol, and Susan Brown, of Torchwood, who will all be performing in the show Seizing Cinderella, while Juliet Stevenson will be interviewed about her career on stage.

Festival artistic director Steven Atkinson said he was delighted to be able to announce the star names in the line-up – in particular Juliet Stevenson on stage on May 6. “It is really nice as they are names you expect to see either on television or film or doing a West End play, so to get them to Suffolk is a testament to how highly they think of the writers at the festival,” he said.


READ MORE:  http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/juliet_stevenson_and_downton_abbey_stars_brendan_coyle_and_lesley_nichol_among_those_to_perform_at_the_hightide_festival_in_halesworth_1_1360971