#dame peggy ashcroft

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Dame Peggy Ashcroft as Margaret of Anjou in “The Wars of the Roses” (1963)

[queer-ragnelle]

♡ Loathly Lady Master Post ♡

A collection of medieval literature, modern retellings, illustrations, films, music, audiobooks, & podcasts all about the Loathly Lady.

Medieval Literature:

The Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Bath's Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Bath's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer

The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle

The Marriage of Sir Gawain

Modern Retellings:

Hero-Myths & Legends of The British Race: The Marriage of Sir Gawayne by M. I. Ebbutt

The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle

Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger

Sir Gawain and The Loathly Lady by Selina Hastings & Juan Wijngaard

Queen of The Summer Stars by Persia Woolley

Guinevere: The Legend in Autumn by Persia Woolley

In Camelot’s Shadow by Sarah Zettel

For Camelot’s Honor by Sarah Zettel

Under Camelot’s Banner by Sarah Zettel

Camelot’s Blood by Sarah Zettel

Gawain by Gwen Rowley

Gawain by Paul McLerran

The Moonlit Knight by @lrtourmaline (that's me ;^))

Movies:

Merlin and The Sword (1985)

Shrek (2001)

Music

The Marriage of Sir Gawaine: An Opera by John Seally

Gawain and the Loathly Lady by Llywellyn

The Wife of Bath's Prologue: The Hart Round by Lisa Theriot

The Wife of Bath's Tale: The Marriage of Sir Gawain by Lisa Theriot

The Wife of Bathe by The Soil Bleeds Black

The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle Opera composed by Martin Hennessey

Audiobooks & Podcasts

The Loathly Lady retold by Donna Washington

Sir Gawaine and the Loathly Lady retold by Alan Irvine

The Wife of Bath's Tale narrated by Kristin Le Moine

The Wife of Bath's Prologue & Tale narrated by Peggy Ashcroft

The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle narrated by The Tolkien Professor

Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell podcasted by The Stories of King Arthur and His Knights

[audreyhepburninblackandwhite]

Audrey Hepburn, her first husband Mel Ferrer, Sir Laurence Olivier, and Dame Peggy Ashcroft during the Night of 100 Stars charity performance at the London Palladium on 22 July 1959

[vintagetvstars]

Anna May Wong Vs. Peggy Ashcroft

Propaganda

Anna May Wong - (The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong) - The groundbreaking Chinese-American star became the first Asian-American to star in a TV show with this series on the DuMont Network. Like most DuMont shows, no episodes survive, but we know from her other roles that Anna May Wong was indeed very hot!

Peggy Ashcroft - (The Jewel in the Crown, She's Been Away, The Wars of the Roses) - Peggy Ashcroft's brilliance needs no introduction. One the finest stage actresses to ever grace the British stage, Dame Peggy Ashcroft made several notable TV appearances, particularly in the mid and later eras of her career. In the TV adaptation of The Cherry Orchard (1962) she played Madame Ranevskaya, and while her performance was brilliant she cut an elegant, tragic, beautiful and somewhat foolishly carefree figure who instantly caught your eye. In the TV series adaptation of The Wars of the Roses (1965), she played Margaret of Anjou, going from naive youth to fierce warrior queen and bitter old age in a matter of episodes. It was a masterclass in Shakespeare on TV by one of the best Shakespearean actresses ever, a magnetic performance and she herself looked absolutely stunning. In the TV film "Caught on a Train" she played an elderly Austrian aristocrat, self centered, kind-in-a-weird-way, imperious and elegant. In the TV film "Cream in My Coffee" she was a sad married woman hoping that a holiday would build bridges in her marriage that broke down before it even began. The TV series The Jewel in the Crown was one of her best TV appearances ever where she played a slightly dotty retired missionary and her ultimate tragic end. Her swan song on TV was her final TV appearance in the the TV film She's Been Away where she played an old woman released from a mental asylum where she was locked in since her youth. Peggy Ashcroft looked stunning on TV and translated her wealth of stage experience into her television performances, winning several BAFTA awards for Best Actress, being nominated for several more BAFTA's for Best Actress and was nominated for two Emmy's (one outstanding lead actress and another outstanding supporting actress) and a Golden Globe (also for outstanding lead actress) as well.

Master Poll List of the Hot Vintage TV Ladies Bracket

Additional propaganda below the cut

Anna May Wong:

Peggy Ashcroft:

[citizenscreen]

Birthday remembrance - Dame Peggy Ashcroft #botd

[scotianostra]

Scottish actor Russell Hunter was born 18th February 1925 in Glasgow.

Born Russel Ellis in Glasgow, Hunter's childhood was spent with his maternal grandparents in Lanarkshire, until returning to his unemployed father and cleaner mother when he was 12. He went from school to an apprenticeship in a Clydebank shipyard. During this time, he did some amateur acting for the Young Communist League before turning professional in 1946.

He was with the left wing Unity theatre, and due to appear in The Plough And The Stars at the first Edinburgh Festival in 1947. At the last moment, the Arts Council withdrew funding - but the show had to go on. It therefore became part of the inaugural Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and the posters were altered from "Sponsored by the Scottish committee of the Arts Council" to read "Eliminated by ... "

Hunter worked in repertory theatre and Scottish variety before making his film debut in Lilli Marlene (1950). He appeared with Archie Duncan in The Gorbals Story, which was a major London success the same year. Rarely without work, he was particularly thrilled to join Peter Hall's Royal Shakespeare Company, and loved working with Peggy Ashcroft and Dame Edith Evans. Particularly suited to clown roles, he treasured a review by the Sunday Times's Harold Hobson, who wrote that he had "never seen such a lovely little Bottom".

Of course with his comic style Russell was well suited to the Panto circuit and appeared in numerous performances, many with his wife, the Scottish actress Una MacLean, herself a great actor and comedian.

The role of Lonely - the dirty, unkempt character in Callan made Hunter a household name, and he would remain recognised by the public for that part for the rest of his life, but his bread and butter was Scottish Theatre and he was rarely without work.

Although in the advanced stages of cancer, Hunter's last theatrical stint was in the Reginald Rose play 12 Angry Men back where it all started at The Edinburgh Fringe in 2003, he also appeared in the romantic comedy, American Cousins that year, playing an Italian grandfather in a Glasgow chip shop.

Russell Hunter passed away in Edinburgh's Western General Hospital on February 26th 2004.

A wee bit trivia to wrap up this post up, Peter Jackson is said to have remembered the series Callan from his youth and used Hunter's portrayal of Lonely as the model for the look of Gollum, with the bug eyes, the thin wavering lips, and the sniveling personality, I don't know how much credence to give this but they do look a wee bit similar!

[myfavoritepeterotoole]

Sir John Gielgud and Peter O'Toole at the memorial service for Dame Peggy Ashcroft at Westminster Abbey on 30 November, 1991 / Photo by Sean Dempsey

[jedivoodoochile]

BBC Four to broadcast David Bowie in Baal for the first time since its premiere in 1982.

Part of a season that will showcase eleven acclaimed BBC feature-length dramas from the past, featuring names such as Julie Walters, Victoria Wood, Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Brian Cox, David Bowie, Alan Bennett and many more

Air date to be announced, but will be sometime this summer.

(It will be on a Wednesday at 10pm)

[shakespearenews]

...earlier this year, he performed in London as Shylock in ''The Merchant of Venice.''

This production, with some cast changes but again directed by Peter Hall, has been in previews and will have a limited run at the 46th Street Theater. The London critics weren't markedly enthusiastic about Mr. Hoffman's performance, calling it ''modest'' and ''low-key,'' ''sound and well spoken,'' but lacking in what one reviewer called ''a tragic dimension'' and another said was ''any strong sense of the character's inveterate malignity.''

One doesn't have to have seen Mr. Hoffman's performance to quarrel vigorously with some of these judgments. To say that Mr. Hoffman lacked a tragic quality or a sense of Shylock's evil is nonsense. ''The Merchant of Venice'' is not a tragedy, either formally or in spirit, and Shylock isn't marked by ''inveterate malignity'' or real malignity of any duration. A complex figure, both wronged and wronging, he and the play exist to remind us that, as W. H. Auden wrote, ''to believe that men and women are either good or bad by nature . . . is an illusion; in the real world, no hatred is totally without justification, no love totally innocent.''

But whatever the quality of Mr. Hoffman's performance, the importance of the London occasion was recognized by the great actress Dame Peggy Ashcroft, who told an interviewer on opening night, ''It's thrilling that he should make his Shakespeare debut in this country.''

To assay Shakespeare for the first time at the age of 51, and in England of all potentially hostile places, is representative of the daring artistic ambition, the willingness to take risks and stretch his gifts, that we have come to expect from Mr. Hoffman and from very few others of his magnitude in our ''entertainment'' industries.

[teach463146]

Exhibit A: Jeremy Hutchinson, the barrister who defends Kempton (and who was married, as the movie reminds us, to the great Shakespearean actress Dame Peggy Ashcroft). He is played by Matthew Goode, an actor whose sleek demeanor can seem like a protective shell. Here, however, that very suavity becomes a weapon, gracefully wielded in tandem with his client’s cussedness. When Hutchinson sits down, having made his final pitch to the jury, the prosecutor—his opposite number—looks across at him and smiles, as if to say, “Beautifully done, you bastard.” If this is Goode’s best performance to date, it’s because he conveys the conscious delight with which his character, bewigged and robed, is performing a starring role.

[inmyworldblr]

Peggy Ashcroft and Robert Donat in "The 39 Steps" (1935)

[troublewithangels]

new wave music fan dame peggy ashcroft

[hello-robin-goodfellow]

RSC DRACULA AU FUN

@superkingofpriderock​ @amalthea9​

As more as i watched productions with the classical 1960s Royal Shakespeare Company actors and Hammer Horror Films, i started to imagine what it would like a more close to the book version of Dracula that was released during the 1960s and kept close to the book.

Here is what comes to my mind:

For Dracula, i am torn between either keep Sir Christopher Lee (who still to this day has provided the most close version to Stoker’s description of Dracula) and Sir Ian Richardson (who looked a lot like Sir Henry Irving, the XIX century Shakespearen actor who was one of the inspirations for the character):

For Professor Van Helsing, either still keep Peter Cushing (who i believe could portray a vulnerable “non-action man” version of Van Helsing, close to the book) or Sir John Gielgud:

For Lucy Westenra, Vanessa Redgrave:

For Mina Murray, Dame Judi Dench:

For Lucy’s Three Suitors (Arthur Holmwood, Quincy Morris and Doctor Jack Seward), Michael Jayston, Timothy Dalton and David Warner:

For Jonathan Harker, Sir Ian Holm:

For Dracula’s Brides, Janet Suzman, Diana Rigg and Helen Mirren:

For Renfield, a young Anthony Hopkins:

For Peter Hawkins (Jonathan’s boss), Andrew Keir:

And for Sister Agatha, Peggy Ashcroft:

[brokehorrorfan]

When the Wind Blows will be released on Blu-ray on April 28 via Severin Films. The 1986 British animated apocalyptic film is based on Raymond Briggs’ 1982 comic book of the same name.

Jimmy T. Murakami (Heavy Metal, Battle Beyond the Stars) directs from a script by Briggs. John Mills, Peggy Ashcroft, and Robin Houston star. Pink Floyd's Roger Waters composed the score, while David Bowie performs the title song.

Special features are listed below.

Special features:

Audio commentary by assistant editor Joe Fordham and film historian Nick Redman

Isolated music and effects audio track

Jimmy Murakami: Non Alien – 2010 feature-length documentary on director Jimmy T. Murakami

The Wind and The Bomb: The Making of When the Wind Blows

Interview with writer Raymond Briggs

Protect and Survive - Public information film designed to be broadcast when a nuclear attack was imminent

Trailers

An elderly couple (John Mills and Dame Peggy Ashcroft) attempt to survive the aftermath of a nuclear war.

[citizenscreen]

Dame Peggy Ashcroft holding her Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in David Lean’s A PASSAGE TO INDIA in 1985.

[scotianostra]

The Scottish actor Russell Hunter was born on February 18th  1925 in Glasgow.

Hunter’s childhood was spent with his maternal grandparents in Lanarkshire, until returning to his unemployed father and cleaner mother when he was 12. He went from school to an apprenticeship in a Clydebank shipyard. During this time, he did some amateur acting for the Young Communist League before turning professional in 1946.

He was with the left wing Unity theatre, and due to appear in The Plough And The Stars at the first Edinburgh Festival in 1947. At the last moment, the Arts Council withdrew funding - but the show had to go on. It therefore became part of the inaugural Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and the posters were altered from “Sponsored by the Scottish committee of the Arts Council” to read “Eliminated by … ”

Hunter worked in repertory theatre and Scottish variety before making his film debut in Lilli Marlene (1950). He appeared with Archie Duncan in The Gorbals Story, which was a major London success the same year. Rarely without work, he was particularly thrilled to join Peter Hall’s Royal Shakespeare Company, and loved working with Peggy Ashcroft and Dame Edith Evans. Particularly suited to clown roles, he treasured a review by the Sunday Times’s Harold Hobson, who wrote that he had “never seen such a lovely little Bottom”.

Of course with his comic style Russell was well suited to the Panto circuit and appeared in numerous performances, many with his wife, the Scottish actress Una MacLean, herself a great actor and comedian.

The role of Lonely - the dirty, unkempt character in Callan made Hunter a household name, and he would remain recognised by the public for that part for the rest of his life, but his bread and butter was Scottish Theatre and he was rarely without work.

Although in the advanced stages of cancer, Hunter’s last theatrical stint was in the Reginald Rose play 12 Angry Men back where it all started at The Edinburgh Fringe in 2003, he also appeared in the romantic comedy, American Cousins that year, playing an Italian grandfather in a Glasgow chip shop.

Russell Hunter passed away in Edinburgh’s Western General Hospital on February 26th 2004.