#michael billington

[sitaxi]

UFO (1970-71) Cast

[science70]

"SHADO Data" featuring Michael Billington as Paul Foster on UFO (UK, 1970-71), featured in Countdown #6, 27 March 1971.

[pierppasolini]

Dream A40 (1965) // dir. Lloyd Reckord

[momentoscinefilos]

[k-wame]

Michael Billington + Nicholas Wright Dreams A40 (1965) · Short Film · dir. Lloyd Reckord

[shakespearenews]

Is King Lear a mountain or molehill? How to play the tragic monarch and ‘stupid old fart’

Paul Scofield, Ian McKellen and Glenda Jackson have all redefined Shakespeare’s unpredictable ruler – a role in which actors usually succeed

But more actors succeed as Lear than not and, rather than itemise them, I have picked out those who have enriched our understanding of the play: acting, at best, is a form of practical criticism and teaches you more than the textbooks ever could. The stock image of Lear when I started going to the theatre was of some Blakeian Ancient of Days tottering around a Stonehenge-like set but that was forever banished by Paul Scofield’s performance in Peter Brook’s 1962 production. For a start Scofield was only 40 when he played Lear: roughly the same age as Richard Burbage in the first known performance in 1606.

More importantly, Scofield gave us a testy crew-cut autocrat who never demanded our sympathy even if he ultimately gained it. It was Brook’s idea to present the play with a moral neutrality so that Goneril and Regan reasonably objected to the presence of Lear’s obstreperous knights. But it was Scofield, with that voice that could cut through metal, who showed us that Lear was driven by a desire to punish his daughters: “I shall go mad!”, as Tynan noted, became a threat rather than a pathetic prediction.

[dragonsandfables]

UFO - Ordeal. In between gif 2 (Paul Foster leaving Skydiver) and gif 3 (Keith Ford's coffee arriving) there is a scene of Foster at a party. Later I shall do a post just of gifs from the party.

[all-action-all-picture]

TV Times Magazine for 27 March to 2 April 1982. Roger Moore and Barbara Bach in the UK television debut of The Spy Who Loved Me. 41 years ago (!) as I type this but just under 5 years after it was released in the cinema. 22.9 million viewers tuned in.

Incredible to think now but the James Bond series did not get shown on UK television until Dr. No on the 28 October 1975 (all areas except Northern Ireland which had to wait until 27 December that year).

Another interesting bit of trivia is that actor Michael Billington played Barbara Bach's lover in the pre-credits scene. He is said to have auditioned / screen tested for the part of Bond more than any other actor and I understand was quite close to getting the part. He's probably best known now for UFO and The Onedin Line but I think he would have fitted in to the role of Bond quite well.