Don’t ask me how Thursday leaves... even I don’t know, says Allam
ACTOR Roger Allam is TV box office. Whether he’s playing a hapless politician in The Thick Of It, or a DCI in Endeavour, he is an enduring hit with the viewer, not least for his smooth looks and dulcet tones.
As fans of ITV’S Endeavour, the successful prequel to Inspector Morse, brace themselves for its final throes next season, Roger admits he has no idea how it will end or what DCI Fred Thursday’s fate will be.
Promoting his new three-part series Murder In Provence, Roger revealed: “We’re in the middle of filming Endeavour’s last series but I don’t know what my exit is.”
Thursday, the grouchy but lovable Oxford copper, has had many false exits in the popular series, which also stars Shaun Evans as the eponymous detective.
Roger said: “I was shot very early on. I thought, ‘They’re going to get rid of me’. But no. He made a miraculous recovery.”
He has talked about the character’s ending with the show’s writer Russell Lewis. “Various things have been suggested but I don’t know. He’s trying to satisfactorily tie up all the ends, and give it a satisfactory ending on a number of fronts, not just Fred Thursday.”
He adds: “It’s quite a complicated business. When you set about it, I think you discover that, ‘Oh, it’d be nice to bring that character back’.
“Then you discover the actor isn’t available or something like that.”
He says it will be “quite emotional” when it finally comes to an end after 10 years.
“Oh yes, we’re a great team. We really love working together. We’re both very serious and we have a great deal of fun. And that’s one of the nicest things about acting, that it’s possible to have those two things.
“We’ve had some great guests – Kevin Mcnally only recently. I’m sure I’ll be very emotional when it finishes. It’s the first time I’ve done a series over such a long period.”
Born in Bow, east London, Roger, 68, will be hoping for a morsel of the same success for his new drama, Murder In Provence, which co-stars Nancy Carroll, transfers from Britbox to ITV tonight.
The title may suggest lavender fields in the South of France, which it does feature, but Roger revealed: “We weren’t in France most of the time.we were shooting near Didcot.
“There’s an abandoned school called Carmel College which I filmed in before, which has lots of wonderful buildings of very different architectural styles, and also some open ground. A lot of the interiors were done there, the apartments, in my office and things like that, and also a few bits of exterior work as well. “Then we had three weeks at the end of filming and all went to Provence.
“We had a week on each film doing exteriors and a few interiors in Aix, which got knitted into it.
“I have to say, looking at them, they matched up really well.”
He plays an investigating judge who helps the police solve crimes.
In the French system the judge all but runs the case with the detectives.
Roger’s character enjoys his food and drink, which throws up its challenges, he says.
“Eating when you’re acting is a complete nightmare. Because you have to talk – they don’t just want to film you eating.
“You have to take tiny amounts or have something that looks like something that can sort of dissolve in your mouth very quickly.”
He hopes the series will do well and get recommissioned. “I hope it does. We all hope it is, very much, but it’s not in our hands.”
When it comes to choosing projects, Roger appears to be a realist: “What figures in my calculations is the script and the character, and whether I’m attracted to that – followed by the amount of time and the amount of money!”
ANOTHER town is added to the sorry list of places where underage girls and young women have fallen victim to grooming gangs – comprised mostly of Asians, predominantly of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin.
Telford joins others towns and cities such as Rochdale, Rotherham and Oxford where victims have been gang-raped, trafficked and even killed. In this Shropshire town,west Mercia police completely failed in their duties citing, on some occasions, they didn’t want to proceed with investigations as it could cause racial tension, or even a race riot.
There you have it. Crimes of the gravest nature totally ignored courtesy of the questionable discipline of political correctness. Can anyone explain what can possibly be “correct” about that?
REMEMBER these? They’re called “ambulances”. And as they’ve apparently become as a rare as a truthful politician, it seems a good idea to remind you what they look like.
Last week it was reported that every single NHS trust in England is at the highest level of alert due to “extreme pressures” and is desperately short of ambulances available to respond to calls.
The situation is unlikely to be much better across the whole of the UK, I’d imagine.
This is in no way knocking the fantastic ambulance and paramedic teams and crews.
I’ve met them at first hand and they are unfailingly calm, polite and positive – even in the face of considerable adversity.
However, how have we got to a position where hospitals are, reportedly, asking some patients if they could get a taxi to the local A&E department?
Whoever triumphs among the tussling Tories, might it be possible that they take a good long look at the provision of this life-saving service?
SCHOOLS could close, staff be sent home from offices and shops and transport suspended due to the heat this week.the Government even convened a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee, usually deployed for events such as terror attacks or a SARS outbreak.
Do we really need the Government to tell us to drink plenty of water, wear suncream and avoid going out at midday?this is the aftermath of those months of Covid conferences where they told us how to live so many aspects of our lives. Beware... we’re in danger of sleepwalking into a “hot weather lockdown”!
BUT the hot weather does call for a crisp wine with a delightfully light and fruity taste. Step forward the Santa Tresa Grillo Viognier organic at Ocado, £11.