Known
for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in the recent episodes of
Doctor Who, Baron Harkonnen in the 2000 miniseries of Dune,
and Bert Large in Doc Martin, Ian McNeice boasts an impressive
repertoire of roles in film, television and theatre. Having been a
fan of his work for quite some time, I went to interview the man who
had played the sinister Baron Harkonnen in the television adaptation
of one of my favourite series of books...
BJ: Hello, Mister
McNeice! How's it going?
IM:
It's going well. How are you?
BJ: I'm well. How're
you finding the weekend?
IM:
Yes, I'm enjoying it! People are awfully nice, aren't they? Had quite
a turn out at the talk yesterday.
BJ: Ah splendid! I
was just wondering if you'd mind doing a quick interview?
IM:
Not at all.
BJ: OK. So last
night you returned to Doctor Who in the role of Winston
Churchill (marvellous, by the way). How did you prepare for the role?
IM: Well I was
fortunate enough to have played Winston Churchill before at the
National Theatre. I'd actually been in a production of Never So
Good by Howard Brenton about the life and times of Harold
Macmillan, and Jeremy Irons had played Macmillan, and I'd played
Winston Churchill. And I think, probably, either the producers or the
casting director of Doctor Who had maybe seen that performance
because that's how I think I got the job.
I'd already researched
the role of Winston Churchill quite heavily for the theatre role, so
I knew quite a lot about him, including watching a lot of the movies
that he'd been in, a lot of the TV shows. Robert Hardy had done him
on television as had Albert Finney in The Gathering Storm, so
I'd done all those. I'd also got a lot of the CDs of his speeches. In
fact, I actually went to his grave, during the winter, it was about 5
o'clock at night and his grave was extraordinary. It was near
Blenheim Palace, where he was born, it was in the village just
outside. And the night that I went to his grave, there was this mist
that appeared over his grave stone, as dark as the ace of spades, and
suddenly I heard this whisper coming up from the grave saying; “Don't
fuck it up boy!”
BJ: I have a
sneaking suspicion you may be making that bit up, but there we go!
IM: Well...
BJ: Keep buggering
on, hey.
IM: KBO.
BJ: Obviously you're
also well known for your role in Dune as Baron Harkonnen.
IM: Oh, now that was
fantastic, yes. I'd seen the movie with Sting, as I think everybody
had, and was desperate to play the part of the Baron because he gets
to fly! I was really interested to know how they were going to fly
me, but I got the role - delighted to get the role - and I kept
emailing them asking how they were going to fly me. I knew from
speaking to various people that going up with wires was really –
especially for a heavy guy – very painful. They wouldn't email me
back.
We shot it in Prague,
so on the first day of rehearsal in Prague I said “how are you
going to fly me?” I walked onto the stage and saw this contraption,
which was like a see-saw with weights on one side and a bicycle seat
on the other. They asked me to sit on the bicycle seat, and so I did,
and they counter-levered me up high into the room where I was sitting
down. I was fine, and it seemed to be quite comfortable, or so I
thought. So I went back the next day, and they'd removed the bicycle
seat and replaced it with what can only be described as a racing
bicycle seat. Apparently I looked like I was sitting, so they made me
straddle this thing, and that was even more painful than I could ever
have imagined. Really tricky stuff.
Anyway, we put some
kind of contraption on my legs so I could stand, and in the end it
was a lot less painful.
BJ: And that series
was cut quite short, after Children of Dune, but if they were
to come back and make some of the later books, would you consider
returning in the role of Harkonnen?
IM:
Oh, I had a ball playing the Baron. I think the director, John
Harrison, who wrote it as well, had put it into rhyming couplets, and
I think with my Shakespeare background he quite liked that idea. I'd
love to go back and revisit the Baron, I think there's still fun and
games to be had with him.
BJ: And with the new
books, the Baron returns from the grave as a Ghola. Have you always
been a fan of the books, and have you read the newer publications?
IM:
Oh, I haven't read the new ones, I'm fascinated! In the new books
he's returning?
BJ: Yeah.
IM:
By the same author too?
BJ: No, it's by his
son, Brian Herbert, and Kevin J. Anderson.
IM:
Oh, by his son, of course... I think I read somewhere that there's
going to be another Dune movie, so that might be what they're
going to do. Perhaps the new Dune movie on the new Dune
books. I don't know.
BJ: If they're
producing a new Dune, they'd
be mad not to cast you as the Baron! And you mentioned you
have a lot of theatre experience too. Have you got anything either
theatrically or on TV in the pipelines at the moment?
IM:
Yes, I've just finished a Charles Dickens adaptation, The Mystery
of Edwin Drood, which is going to come out on New Years Day, over
two nights on BBC Two. I'm just in rehearsals at the moment for an
independent movie, called Nativity 2, which is a sequel to the
previous Nativity, in which I play the father of an unknown
actor called David Tennant. Is it David Tennant? He'd be in some
Doctor Who or something or another...
BJ: Name rings a
bell...
IM:
I don't know. He seemed an awfully nice guy. Scottish, in some way!
BJ: I'll be keeping
an eye out for those! Thank you for your time, it's been a pleasure.
IM:
Yes, thank you. Keep buggering on!
BJ: Keep buggering
on!
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