End of the weekend reflections and origin stories with my biggest heroes in the entertainment business
Matthew Goode. Photo taken by David Reiss, for Square Mile Magazine (2025).
"I was never a show off."- Tony Banks Photo taken by Kevin Nixon. It's interesting how I find myself in the same kind of place that I was about 21 years ago in university. I received a CD-R mixtape from a friend in the online Genesis fanclub. It contained a variety of songs from Banks' solo career. I took a listen to the music, and felt myself journeying into a magical world. That journey was a bit of a slowburn experience. Certain songs were more immediate than others, including work from Soundtracks (1986), Bankstatement (1989), Still (1991) and Strictly Inc. (1995). The slow burn that ended up becoming my absolute favorite is A Curious Feeling (1979). The concept album A Curious Feeling was originally written as a loose interpretation of the Daniel Keyes novel, 'Flowers for Algernon'. The lyrics got reworked due to an existing musical production in London about the novel. The first track "From the Undertow" took birth as a piece originally written as an introduction to the Genesis song "Undertow" which was on the 1978 Genesis LP '...And Then There Were Three...". The track was also featured as the primary theme for the 1978 Jerzy Skolimowski film 'The Shout' starring John Hurt, Susannah York, and Alan Bates.
Still from 'The Shout' (1978). The film was shot in Devon, UK and features a theme similar to the film 'Stoker' (2013) that Goode performed in with Mia Wasikowska and Nicole Kidman. A drifter with a checkered past that comes in to invade a family and mayhem strikes.
This leads me in to thinking about my origin story with Matthew Goode's work. Now there's the club that started off with 'Chasing Liberty' (2004).
And the other club that started off with 'Leap Year' (2010)
In hindsight, the first film that I saw with Matthew Goode was 'Al Sur de Granada' (2003).
In college/uni Spanish class back in 2006, we were reading the memoir, and my professor showed us the movie as a way for us to gain more insight to the author's experiences in Spain. Back then, in my impressionable youth, I did find Matthew quite cute in the film, but I didn't have the guts to ask my professor who he was. (Yeah, I was fairly shy). So, it ended up fading into the background and I got taken in by the undertow of Banks' music world, both solo and with Genesis, and that was my home base. Fast forward to 2014, I remember watching 'The Good Wife' with my folks, and caught a few glimpses of Matthew as Finn Polmar, plus 'The Imitation Game' as Hugh Alexander. My mom and I also enjoyed watching the Downton Abbey movie and I remember seeing him as the dashing Henry Talbot. Again, more slow burn. Years later in 2022, my husband and I ended up watching 'A Discovery of Witches' and 'The Crown'. I was impressed with Matthew's performance as Antony Armstrong-Jones in 'The Crown', and seeing the chemistry with him and Vanessa Kirby in the film started additional sparks in the slow burn.
Photo Credit: Vanity Fair (2018). Between the two episodes, 'Beryl' and 'Matrimonium', the scenes left an impression on me and continued to haunt me for a long time. My husband and I also watched 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society', and yet again, Goodey was there too! Then 'A Discovery of Witches' became the awakening for me.
It was the scene from Season 1, Episode 4, of Diana and Matthew dancing the tango in the lounge at Sept-Tours that made me stop for a bit.
Still from 'A Discovery of Witches' (2018) The way Matthew Clairmont danced with Diana and made her glow with magic, it made my imagination sparkle like it had magical powers. It was so romantic, and Matthew's velvety voice, dance moves, and his old school elegance enchanted me. I asked myself, "Who is this Matthew Goode fellow? I want to learn more about him." I went down the YouTube rabbit hole, and discovered clips of his work as Bob Evans on 'The Offer' and was blown away. Plus, found out about 'Freud's Last Session', and loved the concept of it. It wasn't until 4 years later that I would end up finally getting to watch both. Starting this February, I reacquainted myself with Matthew's work, initially as a springboard for inspiration for my creative projects. But then things started to hit me even harder. I began to notice the nuances of his performances more. The way he would use eye contact and expression, vocal cadence, movement to express characters. The way he would bring life to characters and provide a sense of humanity to them. And then, noticing his beauty. His glowing expressive color shifting aquamarine tidepools of eyes, the smile that glowed like a summer sunshine.
Photo credit: Richard Young (REX) (2017). He represents a timeless form of beauty that is a rare find in this era. A true meaning of the word gentleman. Then learning about his family life in bios and interviews, I ended up admiring him even more. Another echo of the same theme and things that I admire in my favorite musician. Matthew's work makes me resonate on a higher frequency and experience the same joy that I do with music. So it seems that with both of my greatest heroes in the entertainment business that it has been a slow burn experience, and I have been fully enjoying the journey. I'm looking forward to exploring more of Matthew's work.
