 The Wickedest Man in the World, a documentary about devil worshipper Aleister Crowley for Channel 4 television.
"I have never had much time for Aleister Crowley. Magic(k) [one of his books] is nonsense; the mystical societies he formed were simply pretexts for him to take as may drugs and have as much sex as he could. And he was a second-rate writer at best" (Nicholas Lezard, New Statesman, 20 Aug 2022).
A predictable documentary and Berkoff provides the voice of Crowley. The director is Neil Rawles.
Crime Doubles 2002 The BBC´s double length police series. Berkoff plays the crime boss- in prison, but still in control. He has the right level of menacing cynicism. But the program as a whole is a mess, trying and failing with Se7en style editing which rather than speeding up the pace, turns it into a confused jumble of incidents.
Andersen is played by Kieran Bew. James Fox and Simon Callow also appear. The director is Philip Saville, who directed Berkoff in Hamlet in 1964.
Berkoff plays the teacher Meisling. A predictable Dickensian type role, with Berkoff referring to Andersen as "you charity boy".
The film is long and boring, though the Japanese sequence is beautiful, influenced by Paul Schrader's Mishima.
BBC´s feature length boxing day production for 2001. Magician and amateur detective Creek investigates a new murder, a traditional "body found dead in a locked room with no murder weapon" story. Berkoff plays a film director and the whole crew, including Creek, are at a Scottish castle where a mysterious death occurred hundreds of years ago, and this seems to be relevant now.
Actually disappointing as it turns out that almost everyone was involved in the murder, rather than there being one criminal. Berkoff is fine as the director, even though the dialogue is at times wordy and wooden.
Berkoff narrates but does not appear in this documentary of the Kray Twins, gangsters in the East End who Berkoff knew. The film includes an interview with the dying Reggie Kray.
Berkoff plays King Rua in a mini series about Atilla the Hun. Rua is the ruler of the Huns and has two heirs. The older has him poisoned but the younger, Atilla, takes over the crown and looks towards defeating Rome.
The films suffers from comparisons with Kubrick´s Spartacus (the set piece battles) and the direction of battles filmed from above in the mist is taken from A Chinese Ghost Story. Berkoff is good as the old leader, wise but not as wise as Atilla. It was filmed in Lithuania.
In the Beginning - a bible epic covering Genesis and Exodus. Directed by Kevin Connor in 2000. The film starts with a disclaimer "The film reflects the spirit and historical significance of the stories of the bible, although some dramatic license has been taken". A lengthy, almost three hour, television epic in two parts with a plethora of famous names- Alan Bates, Jacqueline Bisset, Geraldine Chaplin, Christopher Lee, Diana Rigg and of course Steven Berkoff. The first part is pedestrian with cheap effects. The second part picks up starting with Steven Berkoff carrying the initial scenes.
Steven Berkoff plays Potiphar who buys Joseph as a slave.
Potiphar's wife Zuleika is played by Amanda Donohue.
She tries to seduce Joseph, but when rejected she accuses Joseph of attacking her.
Christopher Lee has a brief role as Ramesses I but is lost, like many of the other guest stars, as the story moves on relentlessly with few allowed the scope to develop the role as Berkoff was able to do. The story moves to Moses as he leads the Hebrew slaves to freedom, but the Pharaoh sends his troops.
The slaves reach the Red Sea and Moses parts the waves to allow them to escape, and to drown the Egyptian army.
Finally Moses brings down the tablets of stone. The Director of Photography was Elemer Ragalyi, and Editors were Barry Peters and Bill Blunden. I like the imdb.com entry "Frank Finlay... God (uncredited)".
The costumes and make-up give the film some distinction...
... but the special effects, the burning bush here or the Red Sea parting above, are poor and little better than the Hollywood bible stories from the 1950s. "The sweeping shots of the children of Israel on the move, the rickety Egyptian chariots, stormy Mount Sinai - all are more or less the same as they've been in every other biblical epic. And despite all our computer-aided wizardry these days, the parting of the Red Sea still looks as fake as ever" (Neil Genzlinger, New York Times, 11 Nov 2000).
All images from the DVD of the film.
Randall and Hopkirk (deceased). The episode Mental Apparition Disorder from 2000. Randall and Hopkirk (deceased) was a successful series on British television in the 1960s, and is here revived with comic duo Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer.
The series is based on a detective agency where one partner dies, but comes back as a spirit to help his partner. Here the spirit Hopkirk gets advice from his spirit mentor played by former Doctor Who Ton Baker.
In Mental Apparition Disorder Randall has to investigate fraud in casino, and sends his secretary played by Emilia Fox to infiltrate the casino. Randall however decides to check into a health resort to cure the "hallucinations" of his dead partner. The episode and series lack the originality of the original series and the episode is poorly written with a wafer thin plot.
The health resort soon turns out to have a sinister purpose.
Steven Berkoff plays "mouth" the gangster head of a casino "No is a word I don't understand, but I do understand fracture, dislocate, dismember, eviscerate".
Berkoff appears for only a few seconds and is seen hidden in close-up so only an eye, a nose and mouth appear. Directed by Rachel Talalay, the Cinematographer was John Ignatius and the Editor was Annie Kocur.
All images from the DVD of the film. |
Hans Christian Andersen: My Life as a Fairy Tale 2001
Jonathan Creek 2001
Reggie Kray- The Last Word 2001
Atilla: mini series 2001
