Latest news with #RichardE.Grant
Irish Examiner
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Graham Norton, Richard E Grant, Alan Hollinghurst... 10 to see at West Cork Literary Festival
Alan Hollinghurst: Our Evenings The Maritime Hotel, Friday, July 11 at 8.30pm Booker-prizewinning author Alan Hollinghurst will be in conversation with Sue Leonard at the Maritime Hotel on Friday, discussing his new novel Our Evenings - a dark and luminous and deeply affecting novel which portrays modern England through the lens of one man's acutely observed experience. Richard E. Grant: A Pocketful of Happiness The Maritime Hotel, Saturday, July 12 at 8.30pm Richard E. Grant launched to fame in 1987 when he starred in the black comedy film Withnail and I and went on to star in a wide variety of films, receiving an Oscar nomination for his performance in Can You Ever Forgive Me?in 2019. An avid reader, in 2021, he hosted the BBC's literary travel series Write Around the World with Richard E. Grant. The actor and writer will be in conversation with Rory O'Connell from Ballymaloe Cookery School on Saturday, discussing his memoir A Pocketful of Happiness, which was published in May 2023. John Creedon: This Boy's Heart The Maritime Hotel, Sunday, July 13 at 1.30pm John Creedon. John Creedon paints a colourful picture of a changing Ireland in This Boy's Heart: Scenes from an Irish Childhood, where he shares his stories of friendship, fun, family, and folklore. Creedon will be in conversation with librarian and author Jackie Lynam to discuss the heart-warming and revealing journey into an Irish boyhood. Somerville and Ross: Claire Connolly Marino Church, Sunday, July 13 at 3pm In November 2024, new editions of the beloved Irish classics Experiences of an Irish R.M. and The Real Charlotte by Edith Somerville and Martin Ross were published, including prefaces by Connolly, who is Professor of Modern English at University College Cork. She will be in conversation with Dr Danielle O'Donovan, an architectural historian and lifelong Somerville and Ross fan from West Cork. Neil Jordan: Amnesiac The Maritime Hotel, Monday, July 14 at 8.30pm Amnesiac is the moving memoir of Academy Award-winning film director, screenwriter and author Neil Jordan. Reflecting on both the ghosts of his past and his personal triumphs, his memoir is an intimate account of one of Ireland's greatest storytellers. Jordan will be in conversation with Cristín Leach at the Maritime Hotel on Monday, July 14. Eimear McBride: The City Changes Its Face The Maritime Hotel, Wednesday, July 16 at 8.30pm Eimear McBride will be in conversation with Cristín Leach discussing her novel The City Changes Its Face. Set in London in 1995, the novel reintroduces Eily and Stephen, the couple from McBride's earlier novel The Lesser Bohemians. A story of passion, possessiveness, and family, the novel explores a passionate love affair tested to its limits. Seán Ronayne: Nature Boy National Learning Network, Thursday, July 17 at 2.30pm Cork-born ornithologist and naturalist Seán Ronayne will be in conversation with Mike Ryan in the unique setting of the National Learning Network's outdoor amphitheatre on July 17. Ronayne will be known to many through the award-winning RTÉ documentary Birdsong, about his project to sound record all the regularly occurring bird species in Ireland. His book Nature Boy: A Journey of Birdsong and Belonging won the Dubray Biography of the Year at the 2024 An Post Irish Book Awards. Nothing Compares to You: What Sinead O'Connor Means to Us Marino Church, Thursday, July 17 at 8.30pm Nothing Compares to You: What Sinead O'Connor Means to Us is a collection of essays edited by Sonya Huber and Martha Bayne. A celebration of the life and legacy of Sinéad O'Connor, the book explores themes such as gender identity, spirituality, artistic expression, and personal transformation. Three contributing authors, Martha Bayne, Mieke Eerkens and Allyson McCabe, will be in conversation with the Irish Examiner's Eoghan O'Sullivan. Wendy Erskine and Lisa Harding Marino Church, Friday, July 18 at 2.30pm Wendy Erskine. Wendy Erskine's debut novel The Benefactors and Lisa Harding's The Wildelings are two of the most highly anticipated novels of the year, one set in Belfast and the other in Dublin, and both raising important questions about class and social status. Erskine and Harding will be in conversation with Deirdre O'Shaughnessy at Marino Church on Friday, July 18. Graham Norton The Maritime Hotel, Friday, July 18 at 8.30pm One of the most treasured broadcasters and presenters in the UK and Ireland, Graham Norton is the author of five novels, Holding, A Keeper, Home Stretch, Forever Home, and Frankie, all of which became instant bestsellers both in the UK and Ireland. Holding, Home Stretch and Frankie have all won the Irish Book Award for Popular Fiction Book of the Year, and A Keeper and Forever Home were shortlisted for the same award. Norton will be in conversation with Ryan Tubridy at the Maritime Hotel on July 18. The West Cork Literary Festival takes place in Bantry from July 11 to July 18. Visit for more information.
The Herald Scotland
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Gavin & Stacey star Ruth Jones to star in new BBC series
She will be joined in the series by the likes of Richard E. Grant (Saltburn, Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker, Loki), Indira Varma (Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luther, The Night Manager) and Ella Bruccoleri (Call the Midwife, Bridgerton). Filming for the 10-part series is already underway in Wales. What is The Other Bennet Sister about? The Other Bennet Sister is an adaptation of the Janice Hadlow novel and explores and expands on the world of Pride and Prejudice through the often-overlooked perspective of Mary Bennet. The Gardiners (played by Varma and Richard Coyle) take Mary (Ella Bruccoleri) under their wing as governess to their three children - Marianne (Roisin Bhalla), George (Reggie Absolom), and Rebecca (Jasmine Sharp). This new role introduces her to an exciting new social world that includes the likes of Mr Hayward (Dónal Finn), Mr Ryder (Laurie Davidson) and Ann Baxter (Varada Sethu). Top 10 best British TV series The Other Bennet Sister cast The cast for The Other Bennet Sister includes: Mrs Bennet - Ruth Jones (Gavin & Stacey) Mr Bennet - Richard E. Grant (Saltburn, Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker, Loki) Mary Bennet - Ella Bruccoleri (Call the Midwife, Bridgerton) Mrs Gardniner - Indira Varma (Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luther, The Night Manager) Mr Gardiner - Richard Coyle (Heads of State, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) Mr Hayward - Dónal Finn (The Wheel of Time, SAS Rogue Heroes) Mr Ryder - Laurie Davidson (A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, The Girlfriend) Ann Baxter - Varada Sethu (Doctor Who, Andor) John Sparrow - Aaron Gill (Smothered, Piglets)
Budapest Times
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Budapest Times
An acting career takes off
It's only once the book is opened that 'With Nails' turns out to have a fuller title, 'With Nails: The Film Diaries of Richard E. Grant', so potential readers might not be wise to expect reminiscences of the usual variety, the old 'I was born in such-and-such a place on such-and-such a date, and Dad worked as a such-and-such and Mum was a such-and-such…' Immediately after this title page comes the publisher's information, and it reveals that the book was actually first published in 1996, a bit of a long time ago when you consider that Grant has made some 60 films since then. After all, next the Contents page lists chapters on only nine films: ' Withnail and I', 'Warlock', 'Henry and June', 'LA Story', 'Hudson Hawk', 'The Player', 'Dracula', 'The Age of Innocence' and 'Prêt-à-Porter', all from 1987 to 1994. There one other chapter titled 'More LA Stories' in which will be found further anecdotes of the Hollywood experience, pretty much a long round of parties, lunches and encounters with the colony's movers and shakers, the rich and famous, not to forget actual auditions, read-throughs and acting. Also, intriguingly, there is an 'Epilogue'. Something post-1996? No, this latter is just a shortish note on the parallel between getting the nod that you've passed the audition and being signed to convert your private diary into a public screed. Also now, though, comes an unannounced 'Post Script', and it contains a clue that it dates not from 2025 but from 2015. It would seem that the 'Film Diaries' also had a new life then. The 'Post Script'mentions the film 'Gosford Park', which was released in 2001, and gives the fact that Grant has been in London for 33 years, which we can work out would be 2015 because the book opens proceedings in 1985, which Grant says is three years after he emigrated from colonial Swaziland to England. Again, we can deduce that his arrival would have been as a 28-year-old, because if we look up his life elsewhere we find that his full name is Richard Grant Esterhuysen and he was born on May 5, 1957 in the Protectorate of Swaziland. Now that's fascinating. Why Swaziland? Many famous British people turn out to have been born in India, Burma, Malaya and other colonial outposts, the offspring of administrators sent out from the home country. But Swaziland? It's a logical question when he is seemingly a through-and-through Englishman. In the shortest of biographical notes the publisher simply informs us that 'Richard E. Grant was born and brought up in Mbabane, Swaziland', no date or anything, plus listing a few of his films and a couple of books he wrote, and that he lives in London with his family. It isn't until deep in the book that Grant, who often refers to himself self-deprecatingly as 'Swazi Boy' – such as in how did Swazi Bboy' get to be with all these film stars – opens up a little. His father had been Minister of Education during the British colonial jurisdiction of Swaziland until Independence in 1968, after which he was made an honorary adviser. The country was called the 'Switzerland of Africa', having relative economic stability, a single-tribe population and single-language status. The Grants lived in a hilltop house overlooking the Ezulweni Valley, meaning Valley of Heaven, with a panoramic view for 60 kilometres. Swaziland is now named the Kingdom of Eswatini and it is three-quarters surrounded by South Africa. In the chapter on 'The Player', Grant is at a party chockablock with 'names' and he spies Barbra Streisand. Getting introduced, he tells her that as a 14-year-old on a visit from Swaziland to Europe and England with his father – Home Leave as it was colonially called – they saw her 'Funny Girl', and the young Grant was thunderstruck, instantly falling in love. Back home he wrote to her 'care of Columbia Records' saying: 'I have followed your career avidly. We have all your records. I am fourteen years old. I read in the paper that you were feeling very tired and pressurised by your fame and failed romance with Mr Ryan O'Neal. I would like to offer you a two-week holiday, or longer, at our house, which is very beautiful with a pool and magnificent view of the Ezulweni Valley. 'Here you can rest. No one will trouble you and I assure you you will not be mobbed in the street as your films only show in our one cinema for three days, so not that many people will know who you are… ' etcetera. Days, weeks, months, years he waited but no reply. Now, in a party festooned with the likes of Al Pacino, Whoopi Goldberg, Jeff Goldblum, Diane Lane, Christopher Lambert, Julia Roberts, Jason Patric, Sandra Bernhard, Joel Silver, Annie Ross, Glenne Headly, Timothy Dalton, Robert Downey Jnr., Winona Ryder and more, here she is. He can barely speak in awe and she asks, 'Are you stoned?' He manages to tell her he is allergic to alcohol, whereupon she says, 'I know you from a movie'. This turns out to be 'Henry and June'. He confesses to the fan letter, which of course she never received, and she says she doesn't remember being exhausted then, 'must just be the usual press stuff'. He manages 22 minutes with 'Babs' – he timed it – but knows he is just another geeky gusher. While she is an idol with a significant place in his life and experience, he of course can have none in hers. He asks if he can kiss her hand in farewell, to which she says OK and laughs, saving her from Grant's further frothings. Grant writes how he arrived in England only to be 'marooned, becalmed, beached and increasingly bleached of self-confidence' as he embarked on his chosen career path. Unfortunately he found himself 'among the 95 per cent, forty-thousand-odd unemployed members of Equity' (the actors'trade union). He may be exaggerating to make his point. Nonetheless, the possibility of a role in a BBC production arises. But it would be as Dr. Frankenstein's creature. And there's an audition for the panto 'Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood'. Humiliation. Who the hell do you think you are, he asks himself? Brando? Olivier? Go back to Swaziland. Fortunately he has a loving wife for support. He changes his agent. And then the Big Break. Handmade Films, formed by ex-Beatle George Harrison and his business partner Denis O'Brien in 1978 to finance the controversial Monty Python film 'Life of Brian', is going to make something called 'Withnail and I', about two out-of-work actors in squalid circumstances in London, and Grant lands the part of Withnail. This black, anarchic and eccentric film is surely one of the most hilarious ever made, beloved of anyone with a twisted sense of humour, including your correspondent. Grant doesn't need to do anything, to say anything; you only need to look at him to laugh. While Streisand said she recalled him in 'Henry and June', most other people he meets loved 'Withnail and I'. It made his career. Hollywood to Grant is 'a Suburban Babylon', 'the land of liposuction', 'the State of the Barbie'. He eats cold Chinese food with Madonna, has an odd shopping trip with Sharon Stone, works for pivotal directors Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. He talks parenting with Tom Waits. He notes the short statures of screen macho men Stallone and Schwarzenegger, the madness that was ' Hudson Hawk'… Richard E. Grant sees himself as a grounded man minus therapist, futurist, assistant, nutritionist, manager, lawyer and publicist, whom he labels fleece merchants. Still, there's piles of pampering – luxury hotels, first-class air travel, limos, per diems. Oh God, it's all so stratospheric. No wonder he had such a dreadful time filming in lowly Budapest in 1990. Poor chap, he hated absolutely everything – the airport staff, grey high-rises, dirty factories, potholes, sludgy Danube, queues, hotel, food, thermal bath, studio. Sorry about that, sir.
