Sir Tom Courtenay, Manchester Evening News
'Stardom has never meant anything to me’
As Sir Tom Courtenay prepares to bring his new tour to Manchester, he talks to Natalie Anglesey about his successful and varied career
SIR Tom Courtenay is a gentleman and a gentle man. The internationally renowned film star and stage actor, with a list of glittering awards to his name, is so modest that he still sees himself as a jobbing actor.
He created some of his finest performances at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre, where he’ll be returning next month.
“This time it’s not a play, it’s a one man show for one night only and it’s only me,” Tom jokes. “It’s about the poet and jazz lover Philip Larkin. Now if you think it’s just about his poetry, don’t be put off by that because it’s really about his life – and he was a bit of a boyo – interspersed with the music he loved. I’ve based this show on his letters and there’s more prose in it than poetry.”
Why Larkin? “Well I’m from Hull, where Larkin was the university librarian and we have a mutual love of words. I first wrote and performed this piece about eight years ago at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, then last year I was asked to revive it to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his death and raise money for the trust. I’ve also revised it and while doing that revived my own interest in performing it because it’s funny in bits.”
Known best for many harrowing film and stage roles, when Tom laughs his whole face lights up. We first met when we both worked for the 69 Theatre Company, now known as the Royal Exchange, and we laughingly reminisce about the good old days of performing at the University Theatre while building the wooden tent inside the Exchange. I remind him how we handed blankets out to the audience because we had no heating in the early days.
That was before Sir Laurence Olivier opened the present glass and steel structure.
“You’ll remember we opened with two plays, The Rivals and The Prince of Homburg,” Tom enthuses. “I can still remember the shock of walking on stage and seeing the audience sitting really close to me all around the stage. Nowhere for the actor to hide – so your performance had to be truthful. I loved theatre in the round, although many actors don’t share my enthusiasm.
“I was happier playing the role of Norman in The Dresser at the Exchange than I was performing it on Broadway or while making the film with Albert Finney. Although Manchester actor John Thaw was my closest friend and I do miss him, Albert and I still keep in touch.
“He often rings just for a chat and I laughingly remind him that our flat northern vowels haven’t done much for poetry.”
Both Tom and Albert, from Salford, rose to stage and film prominence on the tide of what was termed ‘kitchen sink’ drama. Tom is still proud of his working class background and the encouragement he got at school to become an actor.
“My dad was a ship’s painter and both my parents were really supportive in the early days. I chose to go to university in London because it was near the Royal Academy Of Dramatic Art where I really wanted to be. To make ends meet, I worked as a railway porter, a park labourer, did the Christmas post and worked as a waiter but my dad, bless him, also subbed me.
“When I was offered the knighthood in 2001, I thought carefully about it because several of my contemporaries had turned the honour down. But I accepted in the end because I knew that would have made my dad proud.”
It was while at RADA in 1959 that the scrawny kid from Hull with the hungry look was spotted by actor James Maxwell who urged artistic director Casper Wrede to see the young actor and a lifetime association with the Exchange was born.
“Although it took about 10 years before it came to anything,” Tom laughs ruefully. “But I was quite busy. I made my professional debut at The Old Vic in 1960 in Chekhov’s The Seagull.
“By contrast, I then made a film called The Loneliness Of The Long-Distance Runner, directed by Tony Richardson, about a young rebel, which was a landmark film for me because I was awarded a BAFTA.
“Then I appeared in Private Potter, which again was an important film. I followed Albie Finney into Billy Liar on stage and was then given the film role by John Schlesinger, which was another learning experience.”
There followed a string of films for Tom like King And Country in 1964. Operation Crossbow, Knight Of The Generals, King Rat, Otley and the role of Pasha in David Lean’s award-winning movie Dr Zhivago – for which he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
“All I remember about that film is how long it took to shoot. In total, it was about three years. I didn’t enjoy all that red carpet stuff at awards ceremonies and I decided that the film world was all about money and that wasn’t me at all,” Tom confides. “I never did anything with my stardom. It didn’t really mean anything to me. That’s when I decided to return to the stage.
“I’d already created the role of Norman in the Norman Conquests in the West End for a lovely director, who later worked at the Exchange, called Eric (Magic Roundabout) Thompson. That was a terrific thing to do because Alan Ayckbourne had cleverly written three different plays about the same period of time but seen from different angles and we had a great cast.”
Through the years, Tom has managed to mingle film and theatre roles while winning critical acclaim. In 1977, he was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance on Broadway in Otherwise Engaged and again when he returned in The Dresser in 1983 and was nominated for an Oscar for his role in the film version alongside Finney.
On television, he appeared in A Rather English Marriage – again opposite Albert Finney and in Nicholas Nickleby, which he also enjoyed. But he only returned to the big screen spasmodically in Let Him Have It, about Derek Bentley’s wrongful conviction, Last Orders and Whatever Happened To Harold Smith?
“But the film I most enjoyed making, although it was a harrowing story and we were filming in extreme conditions, was One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovitch, directed by Casper Wrede, who was then an Artistic Director at the Royal Exchange and our friendship was renewed.’
But as far as Royal Exchange regulars are concerned, Tom will be best remembered for important performances in Twelfth Night in which he was a malevolent but misunderstood Malvolio, Crime and Punishment, The Misanthrope, The Miser and Jumpers. Audiences were surprised to discover that he had a nice line in comedy when he created the caricature figure of Andy Capp in 1982. Sadly, the last performances we saw here in full-length productions were his majestic though vulnerable King Lear in 1999 and his poignant performance in Uncle Vanya in 2001.
We last saw him on our television screens playing Dave’s dad, David Snr, in the 2008 Royle Family Christmas special – again giving a perfect comic turn.
As Tom reflects on his career, I wondered which had been his favourite role? “
Funnily enough It was another one-man show called Moscow Stations about an alcoholic Russian reminiscing about the changing events in his life. I loved that piece,” he nostalgically remembers.
Although Tom won the London Critics Circle Theatre Award and the London Evening Standard Award for Best Actor in that role, transferring it to America was less successful.
“Although we took it to New York and it won a rave review in the New York Times, I was told that Americans wouldn’t be interested in seeing a play about a drunken Russian!”
So what next after this tour?
“I may be persuaded to write another book,” the 73-year-old actor tells me. “I wrote a kind of autobiography, Dear Tom: Letters From Home, based on letters between my mother and me at the start of my career, but am now being asked to write the next stage so I’m thinking about that now.
“Meanwhile, I can sense that this show will be with me for some time. I enjoy doing it and hope that audiences will enjoy it too. I’ve just returned from taking it to Ireland where the audiences liked it. Personally I’m looking forward to returning to the Royal Exchange, which holds many happy memories for me. It’s where I met my wife Isabel who was stage manager when I was here in The Dresser.
“I told you it was my happiest time at the Exchange!”
Tom Courtenay appear in Pretending To Be Me at the Royal Exchange, March 8, 8pm
