Glenda Jackson

[Iain Fisher]

Sadly Glenda Jackson has passed away.  More soon.

[Iain Fisher]

An interview with Glenda, good insights though mainly about her theatre work
https://www.mountview.org.uk/whats-on/show/mountview-live/?dm_i=4NIH,VQKC,3D2SAK,3WGJR,1

[Iain Fisher]

Glenda has just won a British BAFTA award (the British Oscars) for best actress.  This goes alongside her two Oscars (one for Ken's Women in Love), a Tony Award and another BAFTA (from 1972).

Because of Corona all the nominees had to record an acceptance speech in advance, before knowing whether they had won.  Glenda is such a good actress her recorded speech made it sound like she had just heard she had won and was surprised.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Glenda will appear on a British postage stamp.  The series of stamps is to honour the Old Vic theatre, and features a variety of actors in roles they played in the theatre.  Glenda will be on the stamp playing King Lear.

Others in the series are Judi Dench, Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Albert Finney, John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson.

It is nice to be honored. More so while one is still living, so one can appreciate it more. Of the people to be shown on the stamps: Dench, Finney, Jackson, and Smith are still with us, while Gielgud, Olivier, and Richardson are no longer with us.

[Iain Fisher]

Glenda will appear on a British postage stamp.  The series of stamps is to honour the Old Vic theatre, and features a variety of actors in roles they played in the theatre.  Glenda will be on the stamp playing King Lear.

Others in the series are Judi Dench, Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Albert Finney, John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson.

[Iain Fisher]

Glenda Jackson has won the Evening Standard theatre award for best actress.   It was for her performance of King Lear (playing the king) in Shakespeare's play.  The performances were here first time on stage for 25 years (in between she was a member of parliament).

If you every saw Glenda Jackson on stage she was magnificent, one of the all time great actresses.

Iain

[Iain Fisher]

Glenda talking about her life on Sunday 5 March 2017 at the Cinema Museum London.

[Iain Fisher]

Glenda campaigning to keep a local cinema open

www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/actress-glenda-jackson-backs-campaign-to-save-deptford-cinema-after-12000-tax-bill-a3303951.html

[Iain Fisher]

Glenda Jackson on BBC Radio 3 talking about her life including with theatre director Peter Brook and of course on Ken.

She talks of a friendly argument with Ken on Shostakovich's symphony 5 which Ken dismisses and says the 4th is the best- he then gave her a pile of Shostakovich albums.

Glenda has to chose music for the program, with an interesting choice, all but one (Vaughan Williams) favourites of mine:

Igor Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms
Ralph Vaughan Williams A London Symphony
Dmitri Shostakovich  Symphony no.5
John Adams “The Chairman Dances” from Nixon in China
Stevie Wonder You Haven't Done Nothing
Steve Reich Clapping Music
Cole Porter Love for Sale

The programme is here
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07h67w9?ns_mchannel=email&ns_source=inxmail_newsletter&ns_campaign=bbcradio3newsletter_radio__&ns_linkname=na&ns_fee=0

[Iain Fisher]

The Guardian newspaper reports Glenda is acting again, initially on the radio in an adaptation of the 20-volume cycle Les Rougon-Macquart by Émile Zola.  It will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.

And the papers view of her best roles:
Women in Love, 1969 (dir, Ken Russell)
Daring adaptation of DH Lawrence’s novel, a story of relationships in 1920s Britain for which her portrayal of a headstrong artist won her an Oscar.

Mary, Queen of Scots, 1971 (dir, Charles Jarrott)
With Vanessa Redgrave in the title role, Jackson gave an unforgettable portrayal of Elizabeth I, described by one critic as “perfectly shrewish”.

The Music Lovers, 1971 (dir, Ken Russell)
Jackson played the nymphomaniac wife of homosexual Russian composer Tchaikovsky (Richard Chamberlain) in an experimental biopic.

Sunday Bloody Sunday, 1971 (dir, John Schlesinger)
Jackson gave an Oscar-nominated performance as a woman who discovers that she shares her young lover with a middle-aged male doctor (Peter Finch).

A Touch of Class, 1973 (dir, Melvin Frank)
Romantic comedy about a love affair between two incompatible people. Gave an Oscar-winning performance as a designer, opposite George Segal as an American executive.

The article by Dalya Alberge on 12 Sept 2015 is here:
www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/sep/12/glenda-jackson-equality-nothings-changed-women-stage-roles

[Iain Fisher]

With the election announced, parliament has dissolved, Glenda is no longer an MP- all MPs stand down until voting.  And she is not standing for re-election.  So she is also no longer my MP.  Sigh.

[BoyScoutKevin]

No, you were quite a bit of help. I know there are certain differences between the elections here in the U.S. and in the U.K. One of them is that you seemingly have three major parties: the Conservatives, Labour, and the Liberal Democrats. While so far we have only two: the Democrats and the Republicans, and any number of minor parties. But the Tea Party may change that, if they remain a major third party and do not replace the old Republican party, as some may think happen. If they do remain a major third party, it looks like they may give the old Republicans some problems. Already the Tea Party backed candidate, who is running to be the next U.S. Senator from Delaware, beat out the Republican backed candidate in that race.

[Iain Fisher]

Now the election seems to be over, I think I was surprised by two things. Both pertaining to the Liberal Democrats. (1) That they'd form a coalition government with the Conservatives, as they'd seemingly had more in common with Labour. And (2) how few seats overall they won. Seemingly, they got about a third of the overall vote, but only won about 10% of the seats in the House of Commons. It'd seem that, at least for this election, whereas the support for both the Conservatives and Labour was concentrated to certain areas, the Liberal Democrats' support was wider overall.

You are right that the Lib Dems have more in common with Labour.  I think in this case Labour had worn themselves out and didn't seriously negotiate with the Lib Dems.  Now that the Lib Dems are with the Conservatives, they are having problems with their MPs and party members who do not like what is currently a very right wing government.

The voting versus seats difference comes from having three parties.  I don't think the Tea Party is actually a new party (I think they are part of the Republicans) but is they were a separate party, it is as if they came second in lots of seats, but the winners were either the Democrats or the Republicans.  So they get a lot of votes, but few seats.

There are regional differences.  There are no Conservative MPs in Northern Ireland and only one MP in Scotland.  Scotland is primarily Labour, with SNP (Scottish indepencence) and Lib Dems the other parties.  And the Scottish government is actually SNP (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also have their own parliaments).

Does this help or have I made it even more obscure?

[Iain Fisher]

I saw Glenda!!

I had a meeting in parliament (this sounds more impressive that it was) and in the cafe I looked up and Glenda was in the queue.  She looked very healthy and young for her age.  Also very friendly to the staff.

I resisted the temptation to run across and say one or more of:
- you are my MP
- I was one of the people who voted for you
- I loved your work in the theatre
- I loved your work with Ken

[BoyScoutKevin]

Now, aren't you glad you voted for her. If you hadn't than her margin of victory would have been only 41 votes.

Would some resident of the U.K. explain to an American, whose form of government differs somewhat from that in the U.K. what the change of government will mean for the U.K.?

Now the election seems to be over, I think I was surprised by two things. Both pertaining to the Liberal Democrats. (1) That they'd form a coalition government with the Conservatives, as they'd seemingly had more in common with Labour. And (2) how few seats overall they won. Seemingly, they got about a third of the overall vote, but only won about 10% of the seats in the House of Commons. It'd seem that, at least for this election, whereas the support for both the Conservatives and Labour was concentrated to certain areas, the Liberal Democrats' support was wider overall.