News about Roger Allam

Sir Ian McKellen, who is starring Roger Allam in Frank and Percy at The Other Palace, London, has mocked the signs and said he 'would be surprised.' His most recent play follows two young men who meet on Hampstead Heath. On the theatre's website, there has been a warning (inset) that the program contains strong language, sexual references, and discussions of bereavement and cancer. "I think it's ridiculous, myself," the legendary 84-year-old actor said. I like to be surprised by loud noises and bizarre conduct on stage.'

On the capital's Hampstead Heath, Sir Ian McKellen and Roger Allam's ode to the unexpected romance that blossoms between two lonely men who meet one spring day while walking their dogs, Toffee and Bruno.

On Centre Court in Wimbledn, more actors appeared in the Royal Box on Sunday. Ellie Goulding, 2: Daniel Kaluya, 3: Richard Curtis, 4: Richard Curtis, 4: Richard Osman, 5: Richard Curtis, 7: Susan Jones, 8: Georgie Thompson, 1 and top right: Brian Cox, 6: Richard Curtis, 4: Richard Curtis, 5: 4: Richard Curtis, 3: Richard Curtis, 5: Richard Curtis, 5: Richard Curtis

PATRICK MARMION: How about this for under-represented minorities? In a mildly carbonated comedy about a pair of old codgers who fell in love while walking their dogs, eighty-four-year-old Ian McKellen and soon-to-bear Roger Allam. The play's two bumbling heroes, as well as Bruno and Toffee, have no chin between them. McKellen, a semi-retired sociology professor from Whitby, regrets that his friendship with former husband Denis ended because they "couldn't make it work after Princess Margaret died." Allam is a marginally more presentable ex-history professor who lost his wife Alice to a brain tumor.

Sarah Vine said that ITV's latest Endeavour is a "really good, solid, old-fashioned crime drama," lauding Shaun Evans for playing Endavour Morse "his own" on the role. Meanwhile Roger Allam is superb as DCI Fred Thursday, an old-fashioned sort of cop

What comes after Thursday? The answer is a cryptic one in one of Morse's crossword puzzles, but it isn't Friday. The character of Chief Inspector Fred Thursday, portrayed by Roger Allam in Endeavour (ITV), is an enigma. He was never mentioned in the original series starring John Thaw, Inspector Morse, nor in Lewis' sequel, Lewis. However, the redoubtable old copper and war veteran, as both mentor and father figure, is a defining presence for the young Morse. What catastrophe occurs to exclude him permanently from our detective hero's future?

The Daily Mail commissioned crime novelist Colin Dexter to write a one-off short story starring Inspector Morse (inset). It has now culminated in the revival of the British detective on television. Inspector Fred Thursday's third series, Endeavour, starring Shaun Evans as Detective Constable (later Sergeant) Morse (left) and Roger Allam as his mentor, Inspector Fred Thursday, is back for the final time with three two-hour episodes. Endeavour's success is all the more surprising considering that Dexter was initially opposed to further TV adaptations. He believed John Thaw (pictured right), the late star of the original series, was irreplaceable

JOHN MAIR: I may not have been surprised. The city of dreaming spires, Jericho, was the scene of the very first murder investigated by TV's Inspector Morse, and ever since that first episode was broadcast back in 1987, the boundary between reality and fiction has blurred. My house was once home to Florence Jeffreys, an unfortunate woman beaten to death by her son-in-law in 1993, shortly after her husband and daughter were murdered in another part of Oxford.

CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: Gossip! It's the lifeblood of television and theatre. There won't be a show without back-biting and whispers, fears of mistrust, and tales of indiscretion. The collective term for the service, according to veteran actor Roger Allam, is "a gossip of actors." Well, I've heard that, but keep it to yourself. Nolly (ITVX), a three-part drama about actor Noele Gordon's ouster from Crossroads in 1981, revels, delights, and wallows in the excitement, intrigues, and false rumors that enthrall the cast of every successful serial.

CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: Occasionally the dish is successful. It's often a sloppy mess. That's as true for whodunnits as it is for lemon drizzle cake. Sally Lindsay, a retired Coronation Street actress, writes and stars in The Madame Blanc Mysteries (C5), a colorful and enthralling detective series set in France. The show features an eccentric cast of eccentrics, an ingenious murder in each episode, and a comic balance of romance and bickering between the sleuth and her sidekick.

This week, Buckingham Palace revealed that Queen Consort (inset) had selected six of her closest friends to be her 'Queen's companions.' The Camilla decision dropped the more formal 'ladies-in-waiting' title. They will be there to assist Her Majesty and the Company. Jan Etherington, a UK-based writer, discusses the importance of close female friends. Smithy, Viva, and Molly. Back row, Jan (in gold), Prue, Laney and Tuz

Blame the VHS player, Christopher Steffen. Murder cases never stretched for two hours before the 1980s, even before the 1980s' boom in home video machines. It wasn't until the introduction of Inspector Morse in 1987 that film-length episodes became common; when ITV bosses correctly predicted that, with many viewers watching shows later, two hours was not enough time. The experiment was not as fruitful. The bulk of the channel's crime serials now are 120-minute slogs, with ads included. And the majority of people don't like it.

Endeavour supporters were left devastated after it was revealed that the series's last episode had wrapped filming. The show's executives revealed in May that the forthcoming ninth series of the Morse prequel story will be the show's last, with the show announcing on Tuesday that they had reached the show's final day of production. Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans) and Fred Thursday (Roger Allam), the show's Twitter account said, 'And that's a wrap.'

Shaun Evans played a dapper figure in London on Sunday as he shot Endeavour's final episode. During an outdoor scene, the actor, who plays Endeavour Morse in the series, was seen stepping out of his iconic Jaguar. Shaun, 42, seemed to be unprepared for the shooting after he sported a black blazer with matching trousers.