Downton Abbey: An interview with Brendan Coyle (John Bates) (LOST IN TV)

You know your character has made an impact when you start seeing your face on T-shirts.

“A friend in LA was working on a film recently and he sent me a photograph of one of the crew wearing a Free Bates T-shirt. I don’t have one but maybe that’s my Christmas presents sorted out...”

According to Coyle an entire Free Bates campaign is being waged round the world, after the stoic valet was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife.

“On Twitter there’s a Legal Bates team and there was a Free Bates rally in San Francisco recently. Free Bates car stickers are quite a thing over there. In fact fans have started making a whole load of Free Bates merchandise. Licensing? Now you’re talking...”

Despite the public clamour (and the T-shirts) series three begins with Bates no closer to freedom than when we left him.

“He’s in prison,” says Coyle. “And he’s finding it a bit tedious to be honest - he’s very much in isolation from everyone else. And he’s getting bullied a bit. He’s pushed and provoked by people in prison who have taken against him.”

There is always a sense with Bates that beneath a calm veneer there is anger just waiting to be vented. How far can a man be taunted before he snaps?

“When anyone’s provoked you might see a response that you don’t expect. We know that he’s had a bit of a dark past. He’s a fighting man, he’s probably killed in his past so that sort of temper, that dark side comes to the fore in extreme circumstances.”

While Anna tries to find proof of Bates’ innocence, the valet himself has to contemplate a life behind bars.


“He’s profoundly depressed most of the time. He does find some hope when he realises that Anna has not given up on him. But his mental state is one of extreme depression – as you’d expect from someone who’s been in a Victorian prison.”

Coyle knows of what he speaks – some of Bates’ prison scenes were filmed at Lincoln Castle, in a three-tiered preserved Victorian prison set within the castle walls.


READ MORE: http://freetvtickets.blogspot.com/2012/09/downton-abbey-interview-2012-brendan-coyle-john-bates.html

Colin Farrell Gets Disneyfied With 'Saving Mr. Banks' June 16th, 2012 4:01pm EDT | (STAR PULSE)

Colin Farrell is about to get a little more family-friendly. The "Fright Night" star will be embracing his paternal instincts as he signs on for a rare "dad" role in "Saving Mr. Banks," according to Deadline.

Farrell joins Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson in the true behind-the-scenes story of the long, hard road to making "Mary Poppins," in which Walt Disney (Hanks) waged a 14-year courtship to persuade Australian author P.L. Travers (Thompson) to sell him the rights to her story of the beloved nanny. Travers (obviously) eventually gave in but remained prickly about it all the way to the end and apparently despised the film's animated sequences.

"Mary Poppins" was a very personal story for Travers, as it reflected the hardships in her real life and her relationship with her father (to be played by Farrell), who died when she was seven years old. Travers' father inspired the character of Mr. Banks, played by David Tomlinson in "Mary Poppins."


READ MORE: http://www.starpulse.com/news/NextMovie/2012/06/16/colin_farrell_gets_disneyfied_with_sav

Tom Hanks, Emma Thompson in Talks to Star in 'Saving Mr. Banks' 6:11 PM PDT 4/9/2012 by Borys Kit (THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER)

The true-life story recounts the behind-the-scenes drama of bringing the beloved "Mary Poppins" to life. Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson are in talks to topline Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks, a true-life account behind one of the studio’s most-cherished films.

The script by Kelly Marcel details how Walt Disney spent 14 years courting P.L. Travers, the Australian author of Mary Poppins, in order to make adapt her books about the magical nanny. Travers resisted for so long because she feared Disney would make an animated adaptation. The studio finally made a live-action movie in 1964, starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, but stuck in animated sequences, which turned the author off from working with Disney again.


READ MORE:  http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tom-hanks-emma-thompson-saving-mr-banks-disney-309716