News about Bruce Robinson

Lesley-Anne says some of her roles earned her 'silly money'. The first was for the movie The Betsy, which starred Laurence Olivier. She was 23, worked on it for seven weeks playing Lady Bobby Ayres and got paid $50,000. She got $150,000 for Hanover Street and $200,000 for The First Great Train Robbery. But the easiest money was for doing absolutely nothing - CBS gave her $250,000 to not go to another network for a year.

If you're looking for some brilliant TV shows to watch this weekend, look no further. From a highly unusual music documentary about a star whose career is threatened by a neurological disease to a quick-fire newsroom satire that becomes darker and twistier, there is something to suit every taste. Our critics have picked out the must-watch movies, as well as laugh-out-loud comedy shows and series. Read on to find the perfect show to get your teeth into this weekend.

With mesmerising blue-grey eyes, high cheekbones and sensuous lips, Vivian MacKerrell was easily one of the best-looking students to enroll at London 's Royal Central School Of Speech and Drama in the autumn of 1964. But what caught classmate Bruce Robinson's eye during one fencing lesson was the smoke curling out from behind his face mask as he parried his opponent's thrusts while puffing casually on a Gauloises cigarette. 'That really amused me,' recalled Robinson, later to become famous as the writer and director of Withnail And I, the hit 1987 film starring Richard E Grant and Paul McGann as two failed thespians who spend a weekend at the Cumbrian cottage owned by Withnail's lecherous Uncle Monty.

MARMION – PATRICK MARMION: Without question, Bruce Robinson's stage version of his bittersweet 1987 cult film is the show I'm looking forward to most in 2024. But can any actors come close to Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann as the down-at-heel sps looking for jobs at the end of the 1960s? And who dares fill the enormous trousers of Richard Griffiths' Uncle Monty? Thank God it's Robinson who wrote the book and comedy maestro Sean Foley directing. Pray that they retain the soundtrack, and wish luck to those charged with firing off some of the finest zingers ever ('We've gone on holiday by mistake!'

EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE : The disappearance of British Museum artefacts has prompted the Royal Collection Trust, the world's biggest private collection of artworks, to conduct a discreet inventory. Although there is no evidence that anything is amiss, a source tells me that tracking more than one million items can be difficult. The King has a penchant for traveling with his favorite art. One courtier was taken aback to face Queen Victoria's drawings and a Flemish oil painting from the Collection in a Royal lavatory.

RICHARD E. GRANT: Honouring my wife's edict became my New Year's resolution and mantra. Joan's guiding pings across my cranium as I progress toward the canyon of grief. Joan died in September 2021 and, two months later, I returned to South Africa to visit my 90-year-old mother, whom I hadn't seen in any other way than via Skype. I was ecstatic to see her on such feisty form a 12-hour flight later. Still enjoying bridge, reading five novels a week, and preparing summaries for a book store. All the electricity has been mistakenly cut off by a plumber who cut the wrong pipe, and it has been off for two days, she says. I'm recommending that we book into a hotel nearby before the electricity is reconnected as her back-up generator has now run out.