The main difference between the modern actor and the player of old is “telly”
From The Radio Times, 17-23 November 1990, page 11:
COMIC STRIPPED?
A FOP, A DANDY in a fedora, above all an actor – thespian Nicholas Craig is the terribly creative alter ego of Nigel Planer. In a new series of spoof documentaries, Craig draws back the curtain on his theatrical life.
‘Every night of the week, twice on Wednesdays and Saturdays, someone’s life is changed by a live theatrical performance of extraordinary raw power. That’s only possible because of the extraordinary race of people called Actors.’ So says Nicholas Craig, as he muses on the innate extraordinariness of theatrical types, in his new series, The Naked Actor.
Craig hasn’t always been a famous face. He first realised he was special as a young shaver at Bexhill-on-Sea, before going on to appear in Benjamin Britten’s opera, The Squashed Boy, and Blake’s Seven. All the blood, sweat and tears along the way forbid him to be precious about his profession. ‘We run out of coffee like Mr Joe Ordinary on the top of the Clapham omnibus and we occasionally throw our lunch at people just like everyone else.’
In this personal study of the acting discipline, Craig looks at rehearsals (‘climbing the mountain’), the method (‘it’s all very well going “mumble mumble” and staring at your navel, but American acting lacks the gut-wrenching primal thrill of English acting’) and the art of television. ‘The actor is a troubadour – but the main difference between the modern actor and the player of old is “telly”. I like to think of telly as my own portable village green, keeping me in touch with the real people. Whatever medium one’s in, be it classical theatre, films, telly or dressing up as Mr Kia-Ora at the Ideal Homes Exhibition, the same rules apply. Nigel Havers brings as much emotional fire-power to a Lloyds bank ad as he would to an episode of Bergerac. RICHARD JOHNSON
Nicholas Craig, The Naked Actor - Thursday BBC1
