Читать книгу Sir David Jason - A Life of Laughter - Stafford Hildred - Страница 6

David Jason was absolutely delighted by the prospect of going to Buckingham Palace in June 2005 to be knighted by Her Majesty The Queen. He was certainly surprised by the award, but without any false modesty he recognised it as a reward for a long and successful career for which he was extremely grateful. But he also knew it was a personal award to him alone and quickly came up with a perfect way to transform the personal honour into a real family celebration – by getting married to long-time partner Gill Hinchcliffe, the mother of the couple’s adored five-year-old daughter Sophie Mae.

‘I’d been with Gill for eight or nine years so getting married wasn’t really an enormous change,’ said David afterwards, anxious as usual to play down any emotions, but the smiles on their faces told a different story. Because it meant devoted Gill and little Sophie were all the more part of his joy.

Close friends said later that finally taking the plunge into matrimony the day before going to the Palace pleased him every bit as much as being elevated to a knight of the realm.

‘It was all great fun,’ says David. ‘My daughter was very amusing as usual. She said to her teacher before the knighthood, “I’m going to the palace with my daddy because he is being reunited with the Queen”.’

David’s wife and daughter are far and away the two most important people in his life and he flatly refuses to get carried away by being ‘Sir David’.

Months after he was honoured, David said, ‘I still find it difficult to comprehend and get a handle on my title. If people want to use it they can, but I feel a bit guilty about it. I think that is because of my background.’

The actor remains fiercely proud of his working class roots in north London and still retains many friends from the days before he was famous.

And the knighthood certainly did not signal any let-up in Sir David Jason’s busy work schedule. He starred in ITV’s highly successful epic two-parter Ghostboat, screened in April 2006. It was a remarkable project that began when David found himself thumbing through a book he was handed as a prop while filming an episode of his detective series Frost. The 1972 novel, by George Simpson and Neal Burger, told a supernatural submarine story that was not like anything that had been seen on television before. David was intrigued by the originality of the tale and full of respect for all the brave, real-life wartime submariners. ‘The Germans called subs “Iron coffins,”’ noted the actor, ‘because so many people died down there.’ It was one of the most expensive dramas ever made by ITV and it took all of David Jason’s persuasive talents and popular appeal to get it made, but both ratings and reviews were excellent. David said quietly he was simply pleased to have provided a much-needed alternative to TV’s usual diet of soaps, reality shows and police and hospital dramas.

He was just as pleased to sign up to appear in the first live-action treatment of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. The writer has watched Harry Potter, Narnia and The Lord of the Rings films break box-office records but for a long time resisted all attempts to transform his own best-selling series into the promised goldmine. He agreed to turn Hogfather, the twentieth book in the series into one of the most expensive films made for TV, by starring as Albert, ‘Death’s two thousand-year-old manservant,’ in a £6million, four-hour film, for screening in two parts at Christmas 2006.

Pratchett’s ‘Discworld’ is a parallel universe that drifts through space, perched on top of four elephants which stand on the shell of a giant turtle. The Hogfather story takes place on the alternate universe’s version of Christmas, called Hogwatch. It’s a time when the Hogfather delivers gifts to children but, when he mysteriously disappears, it is Death and his manservant Albert who take over the duties.

Hogfather was premiered at the Curzon cinema in Mayfair in London towards the end of November 2006 and was greeted with general approval and critical acclaim. David said of his role: ‘It was a great opportunity to get back into doing funny characters, because I started my career playing mainly funny ones – and I thought I was missing that a bit. I’d been playing all sorts of serious roles, that I’d enjoyed – though you can’t say that Frost is totally serious. But when this came along I thought well here’s an opportunity to get back playing a funny character. I liked the idea of playing a silly loony really, that’s what attracted me.’

At the premiere David was at pains to congratulate the makers for ‘breaking down the barriers’ to produce Hogfather on a limited budget, adding: ‘I think you’ve achieved what the Americans would have thrown money at.’

The successful adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather for the screen prompted Sky TV to plan a follow-up and this time the production team went back to the beginning of the Discworld series to bring to life the first two novels, The Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic. The first task for writer and director Vadim Jean was to merge the two books together to create one screenplay. It was a lengthy process, but once it had been fine-tuned it became apparent it would be the perfect vehicle for David Jason’s talents – especially as it transpired that the pivotal role of Rincewind, an incompetent wizard, was a role he had always wanted to play.

David said: ‘I remember reading The Colour Of Magic when it first came out years ago. The central character was this failed wizard who’d got a spell from the famous Octavo in his head. He was just such an amusing, endearing character. He was the sort of driving force behind the book, and I remember thinking to myself that this would make a great movie. It never came to pass, but I always kept this idea in my head that one day I would play Rincewind. I don’t know why I had that belief in it. I never really thought that television could make it. I thought it was only something that big budgets could afford.’

Buoyed by the success of Hogfather, Sky TV were prepared to fund the project and ambitiously sanctioned the production team – largely the same as behind Hogfather – to build their own sets for filming at Pinewood studios. David slipped smoothly into his role of Rincewind with the help of a beard, which took 30 minutes to affix each morning, and a full-length purple wizard’s gown adorned with 1200 stars and a matching purple pointed hat with a floppy brim.

And there was no doubting David’s enthusiasm for his character. ‘Rincewind is a failure,’ he explained, ‘having had a lengthy and troubled time at Unseen University, where the wizards and scholars describe him as “the magical equivalent to the number zero.” Rincewind spends much of his time running away from trouble and the failed wizard is reputed for being able to solve minor problems by turning them into major disasters.’

The Colour Of Magic turned out, however, to be anything but a simple shoot with David prepared, as ever, to perform as many of his own stunts as possible. A scene on the edge of Discworld proved to be the biggest challenge for both David and for Vadim and his team. It called for Rincewind and Twoflower to be swept towards the edge of the world and potentially to watery deaths. To create this nail-biting scene, the world’s biggest water tank on Pinewood’s back lot, containing 806,000 gallons of water, was brought into play with wave machines and pumps employed to produce the necessary effects.

With extensive experience as a diver, the freezing water held no fears for David but it proved to be one of the hardest scenes he had filmed in his long career. He said: ‘I happen to be quite adept in water because I spent many years diving, so when this idea came up, getting in the tank was no problem for me. But what they didn’t tell you was that not only will you be in four feet of water, but you will have a rubber dinghy behind you with very powerful outboard motors. They didn’t tell you that there would be huge pumps creating a current and waves. In the movie it will look very good and dramatic, as it should be, but to have to do it was probably one of the worst things that I’ve had to do. Remember you don’t do this once, you do this at least a half-dozen times or more and you’ve got your costume on that is now full of water and weighs a ton.’

No less difficult for David to film was an upside-down sword fight. ‘It’s fantastic in the book.’ said David, ‘and I thought in my innocence, “We’ll do it standing up, have a sword fight, and they’ll comb your hair back and make your hair stand on end and then they’ll reverse the film. Then it’ll look like you’re upside-down.” No. That’s not what happened.

‘One day we were starting to film and some guy, a stunt co-ordinator, came round and said: “David, have you got ten minutes? We’ll try the harness on you.” And I thought: “What does he want me to try a harness on for?” We went round to one of the stages and there hanging from the roof were these two wires and he produces this harness, something that looked like it was out of an asylum to stop the lunatics going mad. And that was the first that I knew of it.

‘They got me into this harness, pulled me up and then he said: “Tilt backwards. Put your legs up and wrap them round the wires.” There’s supposed to be stunt men who earn a fortune to do this. They pulled me up to the top of the studio to spin over, put my feet on the ceiling and I and this very attractive girl have this sword fight.

‘But one of the things that you don’t realise is that all the weight of your body is now on two places – on your shoulders and on your crotch. When they pull you up, everything’s on the crotch, when you spin upside-down everything is on your shoulders. It’s not a nice experience.

‘I thought it was bad enough nearly getting drowned, but being hung upside-down like the last chicken at Sainsbury’s, I wouldn’t do that again in a hurry!’

For the premiere of The Colour Of Magic, David took along his daughter Sophie Mae on a rare public outing. Sophie by now was seven years old and David and Gill felt she was old enough to be taken out to experience an event where good behaviour was required. Their confidence in their little girl was not misplaced. ‘She certainly did behave beautifully,’ David said proudly of Sophie. In recent years David has paced himself in order to spend more time with Gill and watching little Sophie Mae growing up. He has now entered his 70th year but he shows no sign of retirement or of bringing to an end the long David Jason success story. ‘I love entertaining people,’ says David. ‘But I also love trying new things and it’s not easy to do both.’

Fans of Inspector Frost were enthralled to see David Jason stepping onto the wrong side of the law on television in a highly entertaining crime series Diamond Geezer. He played an imprisoned jewel thief and conman Des Parker, a lovable rogue had more than a hint of Del Boy about him as he put together his teams of oddball villains to assist with ambitious heists. With high quality supporting stars like George Cole and Jenny Agutter the initial pilot and three follow up episodes were hugely enjoyable. Parker was a master of disguise, a talent that helped him to avoid the law, and David was delighted to find some excellent writing which lifted the inventive series.

Parker took on many different identities, from professor to photocopy repairman and from art lecturer to businessman, and Jason insisted, as usual, on doing as many of his own stunts as possible. Diamond Geezer was impressive and it had many viewers wondering if its star would ever return to upholding law and order in murderous Denton.

‘I wanted to go back to Frost,’ he said. ‘I really did, but I have to admit that I thought the old chap had finally come to the end of the line about five years ago.

‘Then I was persuaded to give it another go, purely because there were three scripts that I thought were truly five-star.’

David Jason was in his late 60s and clearly past police pensionable age but he decided to give Frost fans what they wanted, more high quality crime stories. The three new A Touch of Frost films were screened in 2008 and the formula proved as successful as ever. ‘I was really pleased by the reaction,’ said David. ‘I think one of the reasons they went down so well was that we had some really excellent guest stars.

‘It was a delight to discover high profile actors of the calibre of Cherie Lunghi and Keith Barron were available. We were very lucky. It’s good to know A Touch of Frost has this reputation within the business as well as with the viewers.’ And, not surprisingly, the talented Mr Jason did not take long to fit into the role.

‘It happens overnight really,’ he said. ‘As soon as I begin to go through the script, I read it as Frost. I’d say that reading a Frost script was like putting on a warm, comfortable pair of slippers that fit perfectly.’

The three films – In The Public Interest, Mind Games and Dead End – went down very well and David Jason spoke frankly about the age factor. ‘As an actor, it is my job to entertain people,’ he said simply. ‘I enjoy the whole process from beginning to end. Fortunately, Frost won the hearts and minds of the public.

‘Of course, it has been noted that Frost would be retired by now, but because we’re in entertainment and not real life, we’re able to ignore that. We love Frost and as long as he can solve the crime and punish the villain we can ignore that fact.’

Even so, he at last finally decided enough was enough. After agreeing, to the relief of ITV bosses, to make two final Frost adventures in 2009 he announced they would be the last we would see of the crumpled, yet charismatic, copper.

‘I don’t want to go down the Dixon of Dock Green route, where George Dixon was apparently still in the police force when he was in his 80s, leaning on the cop shop counter for support and wearing his carpet slippers out of view of the camera.’

But fortunately, no more Inspector Jack Frost does not mean no more David Jason. The actor remains in remarkable demand. Even Marks and Spencer called on his voice as they decided to re-vamp their award-winning ads. And also for screening in 2009 is the remarkable television film Albert’s Memorial. It is the moving story of three World War Two veterans, Albert, Harry and Frank. As Albert lies dying in hospital his old comrades decide to make his last wish, to be buried on one of their old German battlefields, come true. The last time Albert, played by Michael Jayston, felt really alive was in the closing stages of the taking of Berlin so Harry (David Jason) and Frank (David Warner) take his body and attempt to take it to Germany. The plot unfolds as Harry and Frank eventually kidnap Albert’s body from the hospital mortuary and begin a journey that will change their lives forever, as they explore dark events, hardly mentioned since 1945. With Albert’s coffin tied to the roof rack of Harry’s black cab, they set off on their adventure to honour their friend’s last wish and create Albert’s memorial. The journey will see Frank and Harry coming to terms with the trauma and emotion of what happened all those years ago, when as soldiers fighting for their survival, they joined forces with the Russians to encircle Berlin. Throughout their voyage of adventure, each skates on dangerously thin emotional ice, as the events of 1945 continue to haunt them. It’s a brilliant black comedy about friendship that provides yet another enthralling platform for the sublime and enduring acting talents of Sir David Jason.

One great sadness was the death of David Jason’s great friend and mentor Ronnie Barker. The memories are very precious. David Jason said, ‘I will always feel very, very, very lucky to have been able to work with Ronnie. I’ll always remember one particularly wonderful line that Ronnie said to me one day. We were rehearsing Open All Hours and all the cast were laughing their heads off about something. Ronnie turned to me with this big grin and he said, “Isn’t this marvelous – we’re getting paid to make ourselves laugh!” That’s how I remember him.’

But with his young family and his energy for work Sir David Jason spends much more time looking forwards than backwards. Aged 69, he is still going up in the world, having swapped his bus pass for a helicopter pilot’s licence. He said, ‘It’s taken me quite a long time to achieve, but I finally got it at the end of last year, just at the age when most people are retiring. You’ve got to have something to aim at if you want to get off the ground and go places, haven’t you?’

Stafford Hildred and Tim Ewbank