This is a Journal entry by TIMELORD

the interview (paul darrow) i most warn you it's a long one

Post 1

TIMELORD

THIS INTERVIEW IS FROM THE SCI-FI FANZINE TIMELORD IT TOOK PLACE ON THE 17TH OF MAY 1988 AT THE ALHAMBRA THEATRE BRADFORD WERE HE WAS IN THE PLAY ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT PLAYING ELVIS THIS INTERVIEW COULD NOT HAVE TAKEN PLACE WITHOUT THE HELP OF SUSAN CROW OF THE BRADFORD CASSETTE FOR THE BLIND AND JOHN MARTIN THE ALHAMBRAS PRESS OFFICER.
THE INTERVIEWERS WERE TREVOR RAMSAY AND SUSAN CROW.

tr;Could you start off by telling me if you are an elvis fan?

pd;yes trevor i am i've been a fan since i was a boy i've got most of the records if not all of them ,a lot of tapes of course,that are available on elvis.i've been to graceland.in and around missisippee,tennesee,yes i've been a fan -still am

tr;did you see the origanal version with martin shaw?

pd;yes i did i know martin and i went to see it.i never thougt at that time that i'd be doing it.he did it for quite a while and i think after about 18 month he got a bit tired of it,so he handed over to me

tr;could you tell us how you got the part of AVON in blake's 7?

pd;I'd done a lot of tv before that not always inseries although i had done a couple and the producer of blake's7 liked my work and asked me to go see him, which i did and he said there's this part called avon read the first 4 scripts snd tell me what you think of it.well i read the first one and he wasn't in it! so i thougt this isn't going to be a very good part then i read the second episode and i realised that although it was called blake's 7 it was going to be avons show. you can spot these things when you've had a bit of experience,and i took the part and well you know it went very well.

tr;are you aware that super channel the satellite company are showing the first series?

pd;i didn't know it was the first series but i knew they were showing it.

tr;you and michael keating had a very interesting relationship in the series.

pd;what do you mean by that trevor?year michael and i we've been friends for years,he's a yknow short balding elderly gentleman i look after him,year we've been friends for a long time we had a good relationship in the show we're friends now we do a lot of conventions together not just blake's 7 but sci fi generallyyou know star trek there are doctor who ones as well we tend togo with the star trek boys in america and do a lot of conventions together out there they call it the paul and michael show which is great fun and of course we get to see a lot of the u.s. which is marvellous.

tr;do you apear at the cabarets at these conventions/

pd;sometimes i usually mc them tell a few jokes and generally help out if things go wrong.

tr;you've written a book about avon could you tell us about it?

pd;a question i was often asked still am was what was avon like before the series began? so i spoke to TERRY NATION who's aclose friend and said terry why don't i write it?so he said sure go ahead ,so i did and he read it and liked it very much and a publisher in new york is publishing it in the autumn.i've singed the contract-havn't been payed yet

tr;when the blake's 7 series ended there was a lot of controversy do you think it was justified all the fans writing to the BBC?

pd;i think so yes terry didn't write that episode he wasn't too pleased i think everybody got killed off except one guess who although servalan is still around

tr;and orac'

pdand orac yes thats right it not a person though i don't think he wanted everybody killed off and i suppose well i know because he's told me that if and when they do a spin off which they probably will whether the BBC will do it i don't know but the americans are interestedhe has an idea for bringing it back at least one other charecter is shall we say wounded and that would be villa.

sc;could you tell me a little of the background of your acting career how you first became interested that kind of thing and what sort of things you have done'

pd;well when i was a boy i'm a only child nothing wrong with that but i used to spend a lot of time on my own and ended up going to the cinema a lot and i became a movie freak i suppose and i decided that i'd like to be part of that my father was helpful and he wrote to various movie and tv companies movies in particularcolumbia paramount and 20th century fox etc.i was actually offered a job as a reader which is the lowest of the low but i decided i wanted to be a bit better than that.actors were at the time the late 50's BURT LANCASTER,CURTIS KIRK DOUGLAS ect.becoming their own bosses and producing themselfs so i thought i'd try and become an actor so i went to rada for 2 and a quarter years,and i was relativly successful there then i went into repartry for sometime then i did a lot of tv i started off in emergency ward ten do you remember that?

sc;yes i do

pd;it was rather a long time ago i was an ear nose and throat specialist who suddenly in the course of one episode became a heart surgeon i just found that extraordinary then i did a lot of theatre west end tours toured abroad,ect.movies have evaded me i've done a few but not in particually dramatic roles this is because the british film industry over the last 20 years has not been as successful as it might have been one really needs to go to the u.s. for that i've been to the u.s.i now have an agent over in L.A. and we are very hopefulthat maybe i can now move into an area that i would like to gain experience in.it hasn't been to bad i've done an awful lot of t.v. not just blake's 7 which was 4 seasons admittedly but afterwards i did dombey and son a classic series and before i'd done the legend of robin hood another classic series and before that i did a series of lord peter whimsey those are just series i've done one off plays i did the poisoning of charles bravo in which i played charles bravo i played antony eden in a program about rudolph hess i did the first episode of penmarric was going to do more but couldn't so i did a lot of t.v.
as far as the films are concerned i did a film in norway called port of secrets in which i play a poor mans james bond that was remarkable because it was shown all over the world apart from britain extraordinary t.v. movie. i also did a t.v. movie with john thaw he played frances drake and i played thomas doughty who was is closest friend that was a good movie to do.

sc;you've obviously done a very wide variety of things and the mediums of theatre and t.v.are so very different with t.v. being immediate in small spurtsect, but theatre being live which do you perfer.

pd;i'm quite a technical performer so i quite like films and t.v.theres also more money in it you can perfect it theatre of course is immediate reaction one way or another generally favourable at least certainlywith this show which is good i like them both equally and it sounds a cop-out but they each have a lot to offer the theatre especially for a british actor is very much the back bone of his work we asr the best in theatre the best actors in the world american actors are i think the best film actors in the world.

tr;you've done doctor who 2 stories 1 in 1970

pd;yes when i was a boy

tr;and one in 1985 how do you think the programme had changed during that 14 year period.

pd;well the first one i did was JON PERTWEE which i enjoyed i did it for the money both times because they paid me a lot of money thats not quite true the secon time it was a sort of favour,COLIN BAKER
had been in blake's 7 colins a friend of mine for years and he was playing doctor who and they thought it might be a good idea to have a guest baddie such as myselfthere was a rumure that MICHEAL KEATING was to come in as a guest but that never materialised.i thought it was not as good as it should be my personal favourite was TOM BAKER i thought he brought a lot of interesting aspects to the part and made it a fun show it wasn't as fun a show to do as it should have been if you know what i mean and i didn't enjoy it that much i think it needs a changeof format a bit more swashbuckle a bit more adult content candidly in america they say blake's 7 is for adults dr who is for children and thats shouldn't be the case because i think dr who although it should it may apeal to children it should be for children of all ages.

tr;do you think it would impove if they had writers like TANITH LEE?

pd;oh tanith is a wonderful writer if you get people like that BOB HOMMES of courses wrote quite a lot sadly hes dead and i thought he was a wonderful writerbut terry you see who createdthe daleks.
it was mooted at one point when colin left that i might play the doctor off a list off people from clint eastwood down and if i had i would have wanted some controlover it the first person i would have turned to was terry and he said he would have done ithe would have writen for me he said im a good writer and your a good actor we'll get it write that never materialised but it was the kind of control i'd have wanted and they'er not perpeared to give it to you the kind of control that tom had.

tr; thank you for your time
---------------------------------------------------------------------- i wonder if anyone will read it all


the interview (paul darrow) i most warn you it's a long one

Post 2

GreeboTCat

Hi TL.. ~grin~... me just read it... very good it is too... you should write it up as a Guide Entry.... tweak it up a little... and submit it... you never know...


the interview (paul darrow) i most warn you it's a long one

Post 3

TIMELORD

Thank you for taking the time to read it and i am glad you liked it.
I am still thinking about the over interviews at the moment and i might even try a few things out for my home page.
But i might submit it later.


the interview (paul darrow) i most warn you it's a long one

Post 4

GreeboTCat

Me see's that you are going to be in the Post... ~grin~... me read the other forum conversation... congratulation... ~huggle~... lets get everyone talking about Blakes 7... and maybe the beeb will leave it alone for a little while...


the interview (paul darrow) i most warn you it's a long one

Post 5

TIMELORD

I HAVE STARTED THE COLIN BAKER INTERVIEW IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ IT AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK.


the interview (paul darrow) i most warn you it's a long one

Post 6

TIMELORD

i think it would help if i point out it at http://www.h2g2.com/A402850


the interview (paul darrow) i most warn you it's a long one

Post 7

TIMELORD

i think it would help if i point out it at http://www.h2g2.com/A402850


the interview (paul darrow) i most warn you it's a long one

Post 8

Sho - employed again!

That's great. Have you made it as an entry yet? I'll read the Colin Baker one later.
Sho
x


the interview (paul darrow) i most warn you it's a long one

Post 9

Cheater

I've been trying for years to discover who played Doctor Gully in The Poisoning of Charles Bravo (1979). Help!


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