Brendan Coyle: Life's ups, downs PAM BROWN, The West Australian June 20, 2012, 1:03 pm (THE WEST AUSTRALIAN)

Irish actor Brendan Coyle is slightly bemused by the level of global success reached by Downton Abbey. During the first series he got tweets about the show from all over the world, in one night from as far away as Alaska and New Zealand.

"I thought, something mad is happening here and it is great," he laughed.

He is now playing the upright valet Mr Bates in the third series of Downton and is slightly reluctantly doing interviews to promote series two, now showing in Australia.

The reluctance is entirely because he tries to avoid interviews - he has nothing but praise for the show, which he has signed to stay with for potentially six seasons.

The second season covers 1916 to 1919 but the third will slow down again and cover just 18 months.

"We rattle through a lot of storylines in order for the war to end but season three we are getting right back down to the detail of lives - we have to or we are all going to be 100 in season five."

One of the most tangled storylines of the series follows the romance of Bates and head housemaid Anna Smith. He is trying to get out of his marriage to the scheming, selfish Vera who is blackmailing him with the threat to reveal Lady Mary's scandalous affair with a Turkish diplomat in season one.

Once again Bates is doing the noble thing and suffering for other people's misdeeds.

"Some people do find that frustrating," Coyle said. "But he has to put duty first, he is very much a man of his time.

"To him it seems he has no option - he can't allow this family to fall into disgrace and if that means sacrificing his life, temporarily, I think he thinks it will come good in the end but for the moment he has to protect Lord Grantham's reputation.

"This man saved his life during the (Boer) war and gave him a job."


READ MORE: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/entertainment/a/-/entertainment/13995138/lifes-ups-downs/

Starlings starts on Sky1 tonight – here’s what it’s all about! May 13th, 2012 by Lisa McGarry. (UNREALITY PRIMETIME)

Brendan Coyle (Downton Abbey) and Lesley Sharp (Scott & Bailey) star in the newest addition to Sky 1 HD’s comedy fold – and it’s a welcome one.

Taking flight from the bittersweet scripts of Matt King (Peep Show, Whites) and Steve Edge (Star Stories), Starlings is a humble, heart-warming affair, casting an observant eye on the foibles and flaws of everyday family life for a particularly hectic household.

he Starlings are a normal brood getting on with life in Matlock, Derbyshire, tackling obstacles as and when they come, and they’ve got a fair few in this first episode. Terry (Coyle) and wife Jan (Sharp) have just moved Grandad (Alan Williams) into their already-crammed home – following an unspecified incident at the retirement home – to share with none-too-pleased teen Charlie (Finn Atkins), and now they’re preparing for one more arrival. It’s only small and due any minute as daughter Bell (Rebecca Night) goes into labour via a birthing pool in the living room.

READ MORE:  http://primetime.unrealitytv.co.uk/starlings-starts-on-sky1-tonight-heres-what-its-all-about/

Brendan Coyle:Brendan Coyle on Starlings, Manchester United and Rachel Khoo Downton Abbey's Mr. Bates talks about his new show on Sky1, life as an actor - and his favourite television (RADIO TIMES)

Claire Webb
9:00 AM, 13 May 2012

What’s your guilty pleasure?

I’m trying to leave guilt behind because, as a Catholic, I’ve got a degree in it. But I watch too many cookery programmes; I have them on like I would have music on in the background.

Who’s your chef of choice?

The Little Paris Kitchen’s Rachel Khoo. I was in love after simply seeing the trailers.

What makes you blush?

It takes a lot to make me blush… Singing. My character in Starlings is quite enthusiastic with his singing. He sings loudly and without finesse and that came quite naturally to me.

What has you reaching for the hankies?

Everything makes me cry. I’m a real sap. My problem is stopping: it’s a cookery programme, so why am I crying? I don’t deny it or resist it any more.

What was your childhood favourite programme?

Match of the Day. My great-uncle was Matt Busby so Manchester United is a family obsession. I saw the team recently: I think I might have dribbled.

Did you dream of following in great-uncle Matt’s footsteps?

I did, but luckily I was told by the age of 13 that I wasn’t good enough, and that’s not a bad thing. You see this X Factor generation of kids now who don’t accept that they’re not good enough.


READ MORE:  http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-05-13/brendan-coyle-on-starlings,-manchester-united-and-rachel-khoo

Brendan Coyle: Hollywood not a mecca for me (YAHOO NEWS)

Brendan Coyle has insisted he won't be following some of his fellow Brits to LA anytime soon.

The British actor's star is rising as a result of his portrayal of brooding valet John Bates in Downton Abbey, but he revealed he doesn't really feel the lure of Hollywood.

He said: "It's never been this kind of mecca for me, America, the way it is for some actors, I don't really get that. I've done plays on Broadway a couple of times and loved being in New York and working there but I've never filmed anything in the States so I'd be curious as to that, but again it's all about the writing and all about the parts, it's not about Hollywood.

"It doesn't mean anything to me."

The third series of Downton is coming up, but Brendan, 48, can next be seen in new Sky1 comedy Starlings.
While the premise of an oddball extended family rubbing along together in a detached Derbyshire home immediately struck a chord, he decided a change in direction would also stave off being typecast.


READ MORE:  http://uk.news.yahoo.com/coyle-hollywood-not-mecca-100728528.html

Interview with Brendan Coyle (THE BRITISH COMEDY GUIDE)

Brendan Coyle talks about playing Terry in Starlings...

Could you tell us about Terry?

Terry is the father of the family and he's a new grandfather as well. He is an electrician by trade, as is his father: hence Starling & Sons, the family firm. Terry is an upbeat character. He's not the quirkiest or most comedic of the bunch, but he's a big-hearted fellow, he loves life, he has a great energy about him and he's extremely positive and open. That makes for a very funny character, because life just doesn't meet with his vision of how it should be. A lot of the time he feels like he's in this weird gallery. He is a devoted family man and it's a beautiful relationship he has with Jan, his wife, played by the brilliant Lesley Sharp.

After all the public acclaim for your role as Mr Bates in Downton Abbey you must have had plenty of offers. What attracted you to Starlings?

The same reason I chose Downton: it was the scripts. At the end of Downton, a few things came in on the same week, which is a really privileged position to be in: your imperative as an actor is to get employment, but your ideal is to have choice. And yes, I did have a couple of choices.

This was a real curve ball, a very different thing for me. I mean I had an option to go off and be grumpy in something else. But I thought, 'I can be grumpy in a hat... I can be grumpy in a cloak, or I can do Starlings!' So I auditioned like everybody else and I really took a shine to Matt [King] and Ali [MacPhail], our producer. I looked at their pedigree, and Tony Dow and Matt Lipsey, the directors, and I'm a big fan of Steve Coogan and Henry Normal and the stuff that Baby Cow do, so I thought, 'I'm in really, really safe hands here.' But in the end it just comes down to the same thing every time: it's always scripts. I read the first episode, I laughed, I was moved... and that's the litmus test. I thought, 'Bang! This is going to be really, really good.'

How would you describe Starlings - comedy, comedy drama, other...?

It's quite hard to nail. The only comedy I've done before was a thing called Paths to Freedom, and that was out-and-out spoof documentary stuff. It was a fantastic piece, a big smash in Ireland. But this is something very, very different. The comedy is very nuanced, and it demands a kind of comedic play and delivery. But it's rooted in a source of truth: it's a family, we're playing it for real.

How important is the setting in Matlock?

Well, it's a beautiful backdrop for one thing. I mean visually it's a real feast. We're surrounded by the Peak District, and even just a scene on a little football field would find us surrounded by hills and trains going through the forest above our heads. It means that the whole setting is distinctly not a city thing, while not being totally isolated. That gives it a sort of world, life and pace of its own.


READ THE REST OF THIS INTERVIEW:  http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/starlings/interview/brendan_coyle/

Brendan Coyle and Lesley Sharp in Sky One’s Starlings (BEST BRITISH TV)

B Van Heusen

Downton Abbey’s Brendan Coyle and Scott and Bailey star Lesley Sharp are set to team up in Sky One HD’s new comedy theStarlings. In the new show the duo play a couple who struggle to keep their sanity in a home containing four generations of the Starling family including Terry’s (Coyle) Dad who was booted out of a retirement home and the rambunctious baby Zach.

READ MORE:  http://www.bestbritishtv.com/?p=2997