Poldark-style six-packs 'smack of vanity', says Matthew Macfadyen

THE GUARDIAN
John Plunkett
@johnplunkett149
Tuesday 5 May 2015 05.47 EDT



The actor Aidan Turner’s topless scenes in Poldark were some of the most talked about TV moments of the year but the Ripper Street star Matthew Macfadyen has criticised attempts by TV and film studios to make their male stars increasingly hunky.

The former Spooks actor said the growing obsession for male actors to have a six-pack was not true to life and “smacks of vanity”.

Macfadyen, 40, was told to undergo a rigorous diet and fitness regime when he landed the role of Mr Darcy in the 2005 adaptation of Pride And Prejudice.

“You do the deal and then the personal trainer gets in touch,” he told the new issue of Radio Times.

“When I see it on screen, it immediately smacks of vanity because I know what’s happened – they’ve been doing crunches, 50,000 press-ups before breakfast and a character in a period drama wouldn’t have done that.

“Darcy would have been quite fit because he rode horses and all that stuff, but if I ripped off my shirt to show a six-pack... well, that’s a gym thing.”

The former Spooks star added: “I remember when we did Warriors [a 1999 BBC drama about the conflict in former Yugoslavia], we were shooting with squaddies from the Royal Green Jackets – they were the real thing, they’d just come back from Bosnia.



Macfadyen is set to play Georg von Trapp in a new film about the family who served as inspiration for The Sound of Music. He also stars in the drama The Enfield Haunting.

He said of his Victorian crime drama Ripper Street being axed by the BBC: “I think there was a new person and anything that wasn’t their baby was ... I don’t know, I really don’t know ... but it’s been a rocky old ride.” The drama has since been picked up by Amazon’s on-demand TV service, and will be repeated on the BBC.


READ MORE HERE:  http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/may/05/poldark-six-pack-smack-vanity-period-drama-macfadyen

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/