Home > We've Met Phil! > Ruth's Report: This House and Meeting Phil (October 2012)
Ruth's Report: This House and Meeting Phil (October 2012)
Ruth was in London recently, and while there she attended the 'In Conversation with... Philip Glenister' and saw him in 'This House'. Here she shares some of her experiences.
I’ve been a fan of Philip Glenister since watching the second series of Ashes to Ashes. Since then I have caught up on a lot of Phil’s work and have seen almost everything he has been in. I met him at The Greatest Show in the Galaxy in Peterborough, back in May 2012 - that was an amazing day.
When I heard he was going to be in This House at the National I was very excited. It was his first theatre performance for 10 years and I had a half term holiday - what better way to spend it than watching Phil on stage?
Unfortunately, not being a National Theatre Advanced Member, I missed out on tickets, which was slightly depressing but we (myself and my friend Harri) decided that we would still get tickets to his ‘In Conversation’ event and wait for returns for the play. Eventually we managed to get standing tickets for the performance of ‘This House’ on the same day as the ‘In Conversation’.
So I travelled down to London to stay with my friend and on the day before the play, we went on an Ashes to Ashes location hunt. We went to the buildings used for the police station, Luigi’s and Alex’s flat, as well as the pub used as The Railway Arms, Millennium Bridge, The Founders Arms (where Layton takes his hostage) and the church ruins from 2x08.
I’ve been a fan of Philip Glenister since watching the second series of Ashes to Ashes. Since then I have caught up on a lot of Phil’s work and have seen almost everything he has been in. I met him at The Greatest Show in the Galaxy in Peterborough, back in May 2012 - that was an amazing day.
When I heard he was going to be in This House at the National I was very excited. It was his first theatre performance for 10 years and I had a half term holiday - what better way to spend it than watching Phil on stage?
Unfortunately, not being a National Theatre Advanced Member, I missed out on tickets, which was slightly depressing but we (myself and my friend Harri) decided that we would still get tickets to his ‘In Conversation’ event and wait for returns for the play. Eventually we managed to get standing tickets for the performance of ‘This House’ on the same day as the ‘In Conversation’.
So I travelled down to London to stay with my friend and on the day before the play, we went on an Ashes to Ashes location hunt. We went to the buildings used for the police station, Luigi’s and Alex’s flat, as well as the pub used as The Railway Arms, Millennium Bridge, The Founders Arms (where Layton takes his hostage) and the church ruins from 2x08.
Well, the next day finally arrived and after a bit of a disastrous morning, and a trip to an NHS walk-in centre (for my friend, not me) we finally arrived in the centre of London. After a quick lunch in Soho, we headed to the theatre for the ‘In Conversation’. We left Phil a quick note at the stage door asking him to come out after the theatre performance later that evening.
In the theatre we were on level two but still had a great view; it’s such a small theatre I doubt there’d be anywhere you didn’t have a good view. Philip looked gorgeous and was relaxed and open with the audience. He was on good form with his humour too making several quips and even managing to get the word ‘pleb’ into an answer! (Admin’s comment: this is a reference to the row surrounding Government whip Andrew Mitchell allegedly calling Downing Street policemen, ‘plebs’.)
He talked about This House and how he and the rest of the cast prepared for their roles, as well as his early life and how he got into acting. He also took questions from the audience but I didn’t ask one. I’d wanted to ask what the hardest thing was about returning to the theatre after so long, but he’d already kind of answered it in what he said, so I didn’t put my hand up. (Admin’s comment: see the transcript here.)
After the platform had finished we walked past the stage door and a lot of members from The Railway Arms forum were waiting for Phil. We stood with them and I saw a couple of people I recognised from there and met a few people who I’d spoken to on Twitter too. Phil came out pretty quickly – after about 10 minutes – to a round of applause from the fans waiting for him. Once the applause died down he said, “Do you want me to sign some stuff then?”
My friend got in first with her Ashes to Ashes box set which had already been signed by Keeley Hawes, and posed for a quick photo. Then as we were faffing about swapping cameras etc, Phil was approached by others and I (irrationally) thought I’d missed my chance. I hadn’t of course because after signing some other things he made his way back round and signed a photo from Ashes series 3 (with Lucy from Twitter’s silver pen – thanks for lending me that by the way!) and had his picture taken with me. I explained that we didn’t know if he would be coming out so we’d put a note in asking him to meet us after the evening showing and he jokingly said, “well I’m ’ere now instead!”
In the theatre we were on level two but still had a great view; it’s such a small theatre I doubt there’d be anywhere you didn’t have a good view. Philip looked gorgeous and was relaxed and open with the audience. He was on good form with his humour too making several quips and even managing to get the word ‘pleb’ into an answer! (Admin’s comment: this is a reference to the row surrounding Government whip Andrew Mitchell allegedly calling Downing Street policemen, ‘plebs’.)
He talked about This House and how he and the rest of the cast prepared for their roles, as well as his early life and how he got into acting. He also took questions from the audience but I didn’t ask one. I’d wanted to ask what the hardest thing was about returning to the theatre after so long, but he’d already kind of answered it in what he said, so I didn’t put my hand up. (Admin’s comment: see the transcript here.)
After the platform had finished we walked past the stage door and a lot of members from The Railway Arms forum were waiting for Phil. We stood with them and I saw a couple of people I recognised from there and met a few people who I’d spoken to on Twitter too. Phil came out pretty quickly – after about 10 minutes – to a round of applause from the fans waiting for him. Once the applause died down he said, “Do you want me to sign some stuff then?”
My friend got in first with her Ashes to Ashes box set which had already been signed by Keeley Hawes, and posed for a quick photo. Then as we were faffing about swapping cameras etc, Phil was approached by others and I (irrationally) thought I’d missed my chance. I hadn’t of course because after signing some other things he made his way back round and signed a photo from Ashes series 3 (with Lucy from Twitter’s silver pen – thanks for lending me that by the way!) and had his picture taken with me. I explained that we didn’t know if he would be coming out so we’d put a note in asking him to meet us after the evening showing and he jokingly said, “well I’m ’ere now instead!”
After that we watched him sign a couple of other peoples things and pose for a few more photographs before we rushed off to get some tea before returning to the theatre. We wanted to get back to the theatre early enough to wait for returns – two days of walking around London had tired our legs so we didn’t particularly relish standing for 3 hours to watch the play.
Luckily enough we did get better tickets and had a fantastic view of the play, on Level 1. The theatre is set up to replicate the House of Commons, with the two government offices delineated on the stage floor. Audience members do sit on the Commons’ benches as you can see from the photographs. There is also the Commons bar, which the NT ushers said would us serve “beer, wine and soft drinks, but not at 1970’s prices”.
Luckily enough we did get better tickets and had a fantastic view of the play, on Level 1. The theatre is set up to replicate the House of Commons, with the two government offices delineated on the stage floor. Audience members do sit on the Commons’ benches as you can see from the photographs. There is also the Commons bar, which the NT ushers said would us serve “beer, wine and soft drinks, but not at 1970’s prices”.
On the night I was there (23rd October) the audience was like a who’s who of the political and celebrity world. We saw Charles Clarke, Nigel Lawson, Lord Faulkner, David Steel and Chris Patten. I believe Roy Hattersley was there too. There was also David Dimbleby, Niamh Cusack (who was starring in Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - the play that was running in rep alongside This House at the Cottesloe) and Phil’s River Cottage co-star Felicity Kendal, who my friend and I held the door for!
I didn’t know how I would find the play. Being too young to remember that time in history I thought I may find it boring (and the truth was that I was really only going because it was Philip Glenister). But I couldn’t have been more wrong. I was completely blown away by everything about it; the story, the performances and the stage direction. It was an engaging, funny and, in parts, moving glimpse into that period of political history. I doubt things happened exactly like they were depicted but I like to think it wasn't far off. Philip played Walter Harrison terrifically and, although there are hints of Gene Hunt, I feel the characterisation was far enough from Gene to ensure Phil doesn’t get type cast.
All in all a fantastic day/night – and the week only got better as I saw Curious Incident the next evening starring Nicola Walker (from Spooks) who I also met! Hoping to go and see This House again once it transfers to the Olivier next year. Who knows I may go even if Phil isn’t in it – that’s how good the play was!
I didn’t know how I would find the play. Being too young to remember that time in history I thought I may find it boring (and the truth was that I was really only going because it was Philip Glenister). But I couldn’t have been more wrong. I was completely blown away by everything about it; the story, the performances and the stage direction. It was an engaging, funny and, in parts, moving glimpse into that period of political history. I doubt things happened exactly like they were depicted but I like to think it wasn't far off. Philip played Walter Harrison terrifically and, although there are hints of Gene Hunt, I feel the characterisation was far enough from Gene to ensure Phil doesn’t get type cast.
All in all a fantastic day/night – and the week only got better as I saw Curious Incident the next evening starring Nicola Walker (from Spooks) who I also met! Hoping to go and see This House again once it transfers to the Olivier next year. Who knows I may go even if Phil isn’t in it – that’s how good the play was!