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Once Upon A Time In The Midlands
The great classic that never was, Once Upon a Time in the Midlands boasted the Britain’s biggest directing talent, Shane Meadows, alongside its finest actors – Robert Carlyle, Rhys Ifans and Kathy Burke. The tale, a modern Western set in Nottingham, promised to be a breath of fresh air. Sadly, despite some lovely acting, it all ended up a bit stale. Meadows possesses an undoubted gift for capturing bottled-up emotions and their explosive release, but it doesn’t stretch to bittersweet comedy. Despite the introduction of Mr Bittersweet himself, Ricky Tomlinson, and the acting range of the cast, the film swerves wildly down the hill on which much of the action is set.…
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Once upon a… now
The latest film by Shane Meadows, Once Upon A Time in the Midlands, starring Kathy as Carol goes on general release. Filmed in Meadows’ home city of Nottingham between September and October 2001, the film is an updated homage to Sergio Leone’s legendary Western Once Upon a Time in the West. Kathy plays the sister of the main character Jimmy (Robert Carlyle) who arrives back in town to win the hand of his old girlfriend Shirely (Shirley Henderson). Ricky Tomlinson starring as Carol’s estranged husband and Rhys Ifans plays the unlucky loser in love. Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer pop up as kung-fu clowns.
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‘I’d see her every day of my life if I could’
Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke get on like a house on fire. But does he really want to make a blue movie with her? Rupert Smith meets them The Guardian “Do you smoke?” Kathy Burke is generous with her fags; she and Ray Winstone have both got one on the go, and she’s eager to thicken the atmosphere. “No? Well, you do now.” An interview with Burke and Winstone, the pearly king and queen of British acting, is an exercise in passive smoking. It also becomes clear, after a few minutes, that the fizzing liquid they are guzzling with such relish after a hard day’s rehearsal is not Perrier. The main ingredient…
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Harry Enfield and Kathy Burke bring everyone’s favourite angst-ridden teenagers to the big screen
Heat Harry Enfield has been fitted with an electronic penis for his role as Kevin the teenager in Kevin And Perry – The Movie, currently shooting in London and Ibiza. Enfield has described the film variously as an “English Wayne’s World” or “A rites-of-passage story, in an international setting.” It sees Enfield and co-star Kathy Burke as the alienated, virginal teenage 16-year-olds flying to the Balearic dance capital to get laid and become “top mixmaster DJs”. Rhys Ifans. Spike from Notting Hill, plays the pair’s DJ hero, the rabidly egotistical Eyeball Paul. A key prop in the movie is the electronic device which simulates the erections that constantly pop up…
