Ian Richardson 07 April 1934 - 09 February 2007

Today is the 4th anniversary of Ian's death. It's hard to believe that four years have passed since he left us.

With the passing of time, images fade, but we are so fortunate in that there are so many visual and audio opportunities to keep fresh in our minds what a wonderful actor Ian Richardson was.

The first main section of his career was his time, between 1960 and 1975, with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Although there is almost no visual material available from his host of performances with the Company, it is still possible to obtain DVD copies of him as Oberon (seen above, with Ian Holm as Puck) in Peter Hall's filmed version of A Midsummer Night's Dream and as Marat in Peter Brook's Marat/Sade.

There are a great many of Ian's television and film performances available on DVD from a variety of sources. I strongly recommend getting hold of programmes such as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy; Private Schulz; The Woman in White (1982); Six Centuries of Verse; The Sign of Four: The Hound of the Baskervilles; Porterhouse Blue; Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy; The Gravy Train; Troubles; An Ungentlemanly Act; The House of Cards Trilogy; Gormenghast; Murder Rooms; Becoming Jane; Hogfather.

These are just a selection of the range of titles available.

And today we are blessed with sites such as YouTube, where you can find hidden gems otherwise not likely to be seen.

One of these is the Drama The Winslow Boy (1989) in which Ian played Sir Robert Morton. The link isn't available, but you can find the whole series on YouTube.

In the meantime, you can enjoy examples such as this:

Not so Modern Holmes

This week has seen The Great Detective, Sherlock Holmes transported to the 21st Century in a new BBC Drama series penned by Steven Moffat.

The series has prompted discussions on who is considered to have been the best portrayer of Conan Doyle's Super Sleuth and the main candidates mentioned have been, unsurprisingly, Jeremy Brett and Basil Rathbone. I believe that several actors have been excellent in the role, including these two and Ian and Douglas Wilmer - they have all brought something different to the character.

Ian's portrayal of Holmes in The Sign of Four and The Hound of the Baskervilles has been rightly praised. I suspect he might have been remembered for playing him as much as Brett and Rathbone, had the series of films planned not been halted after the first two had been made - due to Granada putting into action its own plans for a series once the books came into the public domain in 1980, fifty years after Conan Doyle's death.



The American producer, Sy Weintraub, had paid a great deal of money obtaining permission from the Doyle estate to make the films and he took Granada to court, winning an out-of-court settlement and ending his interest in making any more Holmes films. Not only was Ian robbed of the chance of playing the character again, but he also had to pull out from playing the Emperor in Amadeus as Weintraub wouldn't release him whilst the court case was pending.

He did, many years later, have the chance to play Dr Joseph Bell, the man believed to have been Arthur Conan Doyle's inspiration for Holmes, in the series Murder Rooms. And although it wasn't a case of bringing the stories up to date, as has just been done, the series was nonetheless an imaginative way of putting another slant on the Holmes/Watson scenario.

Lovely YouTube Tribute

'Japlick', who was part of the Murder Rooms series, filmed in 2001, has put this footage of Ian on the set onto Youtube as a lovely tribute to him.





It brings back so many memories to me of spending time on the set of the original Murder Rooms story, filmed in Glasgow. It was a different actor, Robin Laing, playing Conan Doyle and the director was Paul Seed (who directed Ian in House of Cards, To Play the King and Booze Cruise II & III). Paul Marcus, who directed two of the four Murder Rooms stories in the series, The Photographer's Chair and The White Knight's Stratagem and also directed Ian in Imperium: Nero is the director in the footage.

Photos by Maroussia Richardson

The atmosphere in Glasgow was just as lovely as it was in the series.

The singer 'Japlick' used (after asking me for a suggestion) for the footage is Charles Trenet, a favourite of Ian's and by a coincidence, probably not known to him when he chose one of Trenet's songs, was used in what, from memory was the last movie Ian worked on (though it was released before Becoming Jane), Desaccord Parfait.