Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

[nmrfox]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

Its still a surprise watching the first series of the excellent Early Doors to see James McEvoy in it,

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

Ahh, Early Doors was sublime. Simply sublime.

Meanwhile, The Professionals continues to astonish. Crossed over to it this morning while the NFL show was on a break and a 20-year-old Pierce Brosnan was sat in an unmarked police van outside someone's house recording their conversations.

[Bored Of Education]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote: Ahh, Early Doors was sublime. Simply .

Indeed. It was everything The Royle Family wasn't

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

11.30 from Paddington wrote: I watched Platoon for the first time in years the other day and only then realised Johnny Depp was in it.

Was he already doing his Adam Ant shtick back then?

[Southport Zeb]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

Watching the athletics from Newcastle today reminded me of a Look and Read programme I watched at school called Geordie Racer, which had a plot involving pigeon racing, diamond smuggling and the Great North Run. The father of the main character was played by Kevin Whately.

[ian.64]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

Just as an aside, I think Whately is quite excellent in Lewis, a show I'm increasingly (and unexpectedly) warming to each time I see it.

[dalliance]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

I thoroughly disliked Star Wars and Star Trek as a child but loved the claustrophobic and somewhat depressing feel of Space 1999. It was a programme that had a decent budget behind it and pretty much every episode had a pretty sizeable and somewhat unlikely heavyweight name dressed up in tin foil and hamming it up.

I'll just paste the Wikipedia entry on this:

Over the course of its two series, the programme featured guest appearances by many notable actors including Christopher Lee, Margaret Leighton, Roy Dotrice, Joan Collins, Jeremy Kemp, Peter Cushing, Judy Geeson, Julian Glover, Ian McShane, Leo McKern, Billie Whitelaw, Richard Johnson, Patrick Troughton, Peter Bowles, Sarah Douglas, David Prowse, Isla Blair, Stuart Damon and Brian Blessed. (Lee, Blair, Damon and Blessed each appeared in two different episodes portraying two different characters.)[4][5] Also, the English actor Nicholas Young appeared as an alien in an episode of Year Two, The Bringers of Wonder. Before moving into the role of Maya during the second series, Catherine Schell had guest-starred as a different character in the Year One episode Guardian of Piri.

[Bored Of Education]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

Although I disagree about Star Wars, Space 1999 was brilliant

[ian.64]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

Star Trek and Space 1999 had the unusual similarity in bringing in TV exec Fred Freiberger to cut costs in later series. Dubbed, the Show Killer, Freiberger reduced budgets and turned both shows into shadows of their former selves. As a force against creativity, he was quite impressive.

[ian.64]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

And that list of guest stars for Gerry Anderson's moon-based sci-fi show is equally fucking impressive. For other shows, I'd chuck in Donald Sutherland, who, in his early days as a young actor in the UK, popped up in quite a few shows such as The Avengers and The Saint. And a boyish Jude Law once popped up in an episode of the Brett-version of the Sherlock Holmes series.

[dalliance]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

Coronation Street has cast all manner of star names over the years, and not just actors before they found wider fame.

Ian McKellen, Stephanie Beacham, Nigel Havers, Trevor McDonald, Noddy Holder, Peter Kay, Fulton mcKay, Rula Lenska, Davie Jones, Bernard Manning..... just some of the many well-known names to features.

[Squarewheelbike]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

Having worked as a Stage Manager on cruise ships, it's interesting to see former fmous faces trading on past glories. What happens at sea stays at sea, so no names. But large G&T's for breakfast, getting pissed and becoming a sex pest, then getting banned from all ships bars, getting camera-phoned having noisy sex on your cabin balcony. I could go on...

[ian.64]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

Coronation Street has cast all manner of star names over the years, and not just actors before they found wider fame.

Ian McKellen, Stephanie Beacham, Nigel Havers, Trevor McDonald, Noddy Holder, Peter Kay, Fulton mcKay, Rula Lenska, Davie Jones, Bernard Manning..... just some of the many well-known names to features.

And Ben Kingsley, while you're at it.

[ian.64]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

Having worked as a Stage Manager on cruise ships, it's interesting to see former fmous faces trading on past glories. What happens at sea stays at sea, so no names. But large G&T's for breakfast, getting pissed and becoming a sex pest, then getting banned from all ships bars, getting camera-phoned having noisy sex on your cabin balcony. I could go on...

Indeed. (*cough*)DM me(*cough*)

[Benjm]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

Just act normal, Ian - no one will guess it was you unless you draw attention to yourself.

[matt j]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

My big one was realizing that Dean Stockwell (you know, Al from Quantum Leap...) was the kid in Anchors Aweigh, and played Nick and Nora Charles son in Song of the Thin Man.

[ian.64]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

Just act normal, Ian - no one will guess it was you unless you draw attention to yourself.

Alright, already. I'm still trying to pay off the trapeze artists and the gorilla handler.

[Commodore]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

Ooh I like this thread, right what have we got?

Pierce Brosnan in The Long Good Friday - a key yet non-speaking role as one of Shand's nemesises (or is that nemesi?). Likewise Charlie Fairhead.

Perhaps worth mentioning Maurice Colbourne here. He was a hard-ass in Gangsters, then in what was by far and away the best episode of Return of The Saint where his ropey South-African accent didn't distract from the tension as Templar tried to protect Rex Harrison's grand-daughter. To go from that to the lead in Howards' Way (oh my God I've put the apostrophe in the right place, the shame of it) is a bit of a transition.

I thought Ian Ogilvy was hysterical in Ripping Yarns, playing the school bully in Tomkinson's Schooldays. Like Norman Eshley he was in every bloody programme ever made in the 70s, but he didn't get to do much comedy which was a shame on this showing.

Speaking of Old Esh, his raping of Sheila Grant in Brookside must be the biggest departure from a cosy stuck up sitcom character imaginable.

Ricky Tomlinson as a doctor in Boys FRom The Black Stuff who tells Old George's wife that George is not long for this world.

Two other northern stalwarts, Norman Rossington and Bernard Hill, as officers of the Pretorian Guard in I, Claudius. Neither attempted to shed their regional accents as they appointed Claudius as the new emperor. In the next episode, Rossington magically transformed into Don Brennan. Outstanding.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

Commissioner Burrell is in heaps of stuff. He's barney in all three silence of the lambs movies, and he's in manhunter as well. I was flicking through the channels the other night, and coming to america was on, and there he was. It was very bizarre.

[Sam]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

Also on a Wire tip, a TV channel here was showing The Exorcism Of Emily Rose last week, and I got rather a surprise when I realised the priest who appears near the end of the film was Idris Elba. This was more surprising because it was the second time I'd seen it (the same channel showed it some time last year as well), and I hadn't recognised him first time round.

Also, and nothing to do with The Wire, Danny John Jules in The Shawshank Redemption. I half expected him to break into a performance of this, which would have spoiled the feel of the film somewhat.

nmrfox wrote: Its still a surprise watching the first series of the excellent Early Doors to see James McEvoy in it,

The bloke who plays the landlord from Early Doors is a regular in a couple of my uncle's locals. This is Saddleworth, so absolutely no-one gives a toss about the fact he's been on telly, but I suspect if I'd not been made aware of this fact before joining my uncle for a pub quiz one evening, I'd have had one of these moments in real life. Especially given it was in a pub.

southportzeb wrote: Watching the athletics from Newcastle today reminded me of a Look and Read programme I watched at school called Geordie Racer, which had a plot involving pigeon racing, diamond smuggling and the Great North Run. The father of the main character was played by Kevin Whately.

After reading this, I had to check your age - and sure enough, we'd have been in the same school year. I'd completely forgotten about that programme. How on earth do you remember shit like that?!

[ian.64]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

I thought Ian Ogilvy was hysterical in Ripping Yarns, playing the school bully in Tomkinson's Schooldays.

Watch the Meryl Streep-Bruce Willis comedy Death Becomes Her and there's the Ogilmeister popping up as the fey German chief excutive in charge of the mysterious facility that gives everlasting life to its clients.

[MarkF]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

Commodore wrote: Perhaps worth mentioning Maurice Colbourne here. He was a hard-ass in Gangsters

An absolutely brilliant series which also was the first time I saw Paul Barber (Denzil from OF&H). I was saddened to read that Colbourne died when he was only 49. Way too young...

[San Bernardhinault]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

I'm pretty sure that the corpse of Tom Selleck briefly appears in early the Michael Crichton flick Coma

[ian.64]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

I'm pretty sure that the corpse of Tom Selleck briefly appears in early the Michael Crichton flick Coma

Yes, he does. As does a young Ed Harris as a lab assistant. Over the weekend, a fresh-faced Rachel Weisz pops up in Inspector Morse.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Jaw-dropping "oh, it's him!" moments

Is that the same one where an impossibly-young looking Paul McGann appears as a student as does the ginger bloke who's grown up to be the one out of Homeland?