The Daily Record - Paul English

OVER THE MOON

2011-08-19T05:34:57Z

Compston is relishing werewolf role in new camp horror movie HERE'S Scots actor Martin Compston as you've never seen n him before - as a ruthless werewolf battling a gang of rampant strippers.

ror ith ert ral s e The Record were given on-set access to the actor's new camp horror comedy Strippers vs Werewolves. Compston appears in the flick with Nightmare On Elm Street star Robert Englund, Sarah Douglas - better known to film fans as Ursa, the Kryptonian baddie who was General Zod's moll in Superman II - and Stephen Berkov from Beverly Hills Cop.The gory romp also features EastEnders' Martin Kemp and The Bill's Billy Murray as well as glamour model Lucy Pinder. Compston, 27, who starred in Ken Loach's Sweet Sixteen, Robert Downey Jr's A Guide To Recognising Your Saints and last year's Brit-hit thriller The Disappearance of Alice Creed, has just finished filming his latest role - and he reckons it was fang-tastic. Speaking exclusively to the Record on set, Greenock-born Martin said: "The make-up to make me look like werewolf is pretty intense, and I'm in the chair for hours being turned into a wolf. Then we're filming non-stop for 13 or 14 hours."So what's the story? rt s le - a Giggling, Martin said: "There's basically a bunch of strippers and one of them gets attacked by a werewolf. But the werewolf is the one who ends up in a bad way after it. "So the werewolves want revenge.

e e I play Scott, the second leader of the pack behind Billy Murray. "Sarah Douglas is the leader of the strippers with Adele Silva my opposite number. "The whole thing is, we don't know about each others' alter-egos. She thinks I'm an estate agent." The flick, directed by Jonathan Glendening, has all the hallmarks of a camp classic, merging gore with bare flesh in a combo that might not exactly get the feminist lobby queuing round the block for tickets. In fact, Martin agrees his instinct was to let this offer pass. He said: "I'd just finished filming in the Alps with Gillian Anderson (X Files) and we were getting ski mobiles to work every day. "I got a call and was falling around laughing when they offered me the part. I honestly said it wasn't for me, And then I read the script and found it hilarious.

hilarious. "in "The wolves this film can control when they change. don't just They go nuts with the moon.

th "And we don't become these massive hairy things on all fours.

Our eyes change, we have vicious faces and our senses are heightened. But we don't turn into all-out wolves.

"I'm actually wearing a suit while I'm a werewolf. It's nothing like Twilight.

"But it's hard getting up at half four in the morning to have that s**t put on your face for two-and-a-half hours then another hour to get it off. "It helps with the acting, though.

You'd feel stupid bouncing around pretending to be a wolf but when you're behind so much prosthetic it kind of helps you. It was great working Sara with Sarah didn't too much about Street or Superman. That was a ah and Robert. They h bout Nightmare On talk Elm Strebit befoMurrayhere bit before my time, but folk like Billy Murray are proper legends down here London." Martin added: "It's a bit of a change for a bit of a surprise, so hopefully it go well."

in Martinfor me, ait will goIt's mlastDopw It's a million miles away from his last big-screen outing with Sliding Doors' John Lynch, in which he played a fire-raising jailbird who was brutalised by cellmates. Speaking of one scene in Ghosted, in which he was sexually attacked by a fellow inmate, he said: "I felt like I'd earned my money that day.

sinmearn" "Scenes like that are horrible to do, Scebut rewardThe yfootbaplucke but in some ways also the most rewarding." The young actor started off playing football for Morton before being plucked from obscurity at St Columba's High School in Gourock to star in Sweet Sixteen. A decade later, he's served time with parts in Monarch Of The Glen and Casualty, acclaimed flicks like Alice Creed and The Damned United, as well as award-winning Scots flicks Red Road and Donkeys and last year's Northern Soul retro dance extravaganza Soul Boy. He was also the surprise star of The View's video to last year's single Grace - after his drinking buddy Kyle asked him to take the lead. " Falconer I was dead chuffed to be asked," Martin said. "I'm glad they didn't ask me to sing, though. One night after filming Ghosted last year we ended up back at (co-star) Art Malik's house. There were loads of musical instruments lying around and I was singing a Paolo Nutini cover. Made a proper a**e of myself too." Martin is planning to set up home in London with long-term girlfriend Stacey McKelvie, who is working as a school teacher in Spain. He has a number of films still in the can for release later this year including fight-club themed London flick Piggy.

Martin's also in talks over a couple of other high-profile roles, including a possible biography of millionaire gangster Paul Ferris.

And later this year he'll start filming Irvine Welsh's Filth, with a cast including Jamie Bell (Billy Elliott) and Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges). He said: "Irvine Welsh is one of my heroes, I've read everything he's ever written. Filth is his best book, I think. Just as a narrative, it's genius. "There are a couple of things I thought would be hard to take over to a film, but they've done so well with it." And he might also be taking up random marathon running - all in a bid to make it to watch his favourite football team when he's overseas.

Fans sing they'd walk a million miles for one of their goals - but Martin ran 25 of them. He said: "I ran the LA marathon this year when I was over in Hollywood. It was in the pouring rain. I was trying to get across the city to watch the Celtic game, but couldn't drive because of the marathon taking place. "So I decided just to run it instead. I did the whole 26 miles without actual marathon training, although I do keep myself fit. "I did it in four hours 45 minutes and I couldn't walk for about a week afterwards. But it was great to do it."

? Strippers vs Werewolves will be out later this year.

Compston cops a top police part

2011-08-18T05:33:03Z

Scots actor Martin Compston has landed a lead role in a new BBC drama about police corruption.

The 27-year-old will star alongside telly veterans Neil Morrissey and Adrian Dunbar in five-part series Line Of Duty.

It will be Greenock-born Compston's first major TV role since BBC1 drama Monarch Of The Glen finished five years ago.

Line Of Duty, which will be screened on BBC2 next year, is being made by the same production company that worked on twentysomethings drama This Life.

It is written by ex-doctor Jed Mercurio, who penned acclaimed 1990s medical drama Cardiac Arrest.

It will focus on the issues often avoided by police dramas, including allegations of corruption within the force's Serious Crime Unit.

Compston said: "I'm chuffed to bits to get the part. It feel like my first proper 'grown-up' role "My character is a cop from middle England and it's a real change of pace for me.

"The guy has a southern English accent but it's no bother for me now as I've done loads of accent work.

Calling City River on

2011-08-17T05:33:41Z

This is the moment barmaid Annie Sobacz decides to leave River City - and her troubled past - behind.

In recent weeks, Annie's life in Shieldinch has been rocked by the reappearance in her life of her violent husband Sandy.

And although she has found new love with Charlie, she fears Sandy, played by Robert Cavanah, will never leave them alone.

Annie faces a heartbreaking dilemma on whether to stay or go - and decides to flee.

Reanne Farley, who plays the barmaid, said: "Annie has been running from Sandy and wants to get on with her life without him. She loves her life in Shieldinch and feels very settled with Charlie.

"She doesn't know whether to stand up and fight or run away again. She has a dark past that she doesn't want to tell anyone about. Some of the scenes were quite traumatic to film."

Reanne and River City co-star Andy Clark, who plays Dr Michael Brodie, are both from Blairgowrie, Perthshire. And they have a dedicated following in the town.

She said: "The pressure is on, because people you know or went to school with are watching you every week.

"I have people say to me in the street that I look like the barmaid in River City. I have to tell them it's me."

Fringe benefits

2011-08-07T05:57:19Z

It's not all arty-farty frolics for posh people, you know. There's actually something for everyone at the Edinburgh Festival.

And as the world's biggest international arts festival, we really shouldn't be letting inverted snobbery get in the way of enjoying ourselves.

Even if you're not getting yourself on one of the crowded trains heading in to Edinburgh, you can stay abreast of what's happening in Embra (as our defiantly west coast colleagues call it) thanks to Sue Perkins.

She'll no doubt be doing a lot of that annoying, looking-over-the-top-ofher-glasses thing she does, while bringing viewers all the best from this year's cultural hijacking of Auld Reekie. Alastair Sooke looks at the best of this year's Art Festival, including exhibitions of work by one of America's most influential 20th century artists, Robert Rauschenberg, and sculptures by Tony Cragg.

At the book festival, The Culture Show will be speaking to writers AS Byatt and Alasdair Gray and Mark Kermode gives his take on the modern multiplex.

Other Fringe highlights include a musical featuring Marc Almond, Ten Plagues, and John Malkovich's take on Harold Pinter.

There will also be comedy from David Sedaris and Margaret Cho and music from the great Ravi Shankar. And on Friday nights throughout August, Kirsty Wark hosts three special editions of The Review Show from the heart of the Festival.

So dig in and enjoy. We're lucky to have it.

DON'T MISS TOP PICK

Trip doon the watter makes me seasick..

2011-07-28T07:22:00Z

Sugartown, BBC1 Sunday TORCHWOOD has been given a shot in the arm now that it's being co-produced by a US company, taking Wales to West Hollywood.

Their special-effects budget is probably bigger than Cardiff Council's annual spend.

It's a shame nobody thought to team up the Beeb's new Sunday offering with its transatlantic cousin. How to deal with a terminally ailing seaside town?

Chuck a Hollywood script and a tidal wave at it, wipe it out and start again.

Casualties would be minimal - nobody lives in, or visits, Sugartown.

And after one episode, I won't be heading back, either.

What is it with this slot on a Sunday? Do telly execs think the viewing public's IQ melts into something resembling the goo they use to make the sticks of rock that nobody comes to Sugartown to buy any more?

We've not long got rid of Last of The Summer Wine and mercifully there's no imminent threat of Jam & Jerusalem or Hope Springs returning.

The Beeb are calling Sugartown comedy/drama. But you can't do that just because Sue "Royle Family/Silent Witness" Johnston's in it.

It needs to be funny. Or dramatic. Sugartown's story is as jaded as its promenade.

Young buck comes home from The Smoke seeking his cut of the family business to implement his 'big idea' wearing a camel coat and a smile.

Set-in-their-ways locals resist. They, of course, are dimly happy with their (not a) lot and, I suspect, must be brain dead.

There's more creative thought in Rastamouse. In fact, should the reports of a return for the test card be true, I'd sooner watch an hour of that.

The script has been born of some bright spark's suggestion to "do something about the rise of the stay-cation" in Britain.

But not even Folkestone in horizontal hail is as hellishly dreary as an hour with this am-dram banality set in the pretend home of the stick of seaside rock.

It's anyone's guess what that rock has written through it.

Not sure there's enough space for "serious lack of imagination".

Switch off..

2011-07-28T05:34:11Z

Cops With Cameras, ITV, Tuesday

I KNOW what I'd like to do with their cameras, and that would be a show more folk would watch than this.

24 Hours in A&E, C4, Wed

HATS off to those who work there, but really? A TV programme about real life casualty? As if the dramatised version on BBC1 on Saturdays wasn't painful enough.

Crunchy numbers not so appetising

2011-07-28T05:34:05Z

The Code, BBC2, Wednesday

PROFESSOR Marcus Du Sautoy started off in a cathedral, saying that within its walls lay the clues to one of humanity's most enduring questions.

The Prof, below, threw everything at sums to make them interesting, from the moon and the stars to Dover sole, and appeared like a man best avoided like long division.

It merged astrology, biology and archaeology into dramatically-filmed crash courses.

But after all that, the only addition of "fish" to "pi" that I'm interested in is the one you can run through a microwave. Not a calculator.

Shuttle tribute a real blast

2011-07-28T05:34:03Z

Sunday night, BBC2: Space Shuttle - The Final Mission

A rocket-fuelled homage to mankind's greatest interstellar achievements.

Sunday night, ITV2: Peter Andre Here to Help. A reason to leave for another planet.

In 1983, my class was ushered into the Kilmacolm Primary playground by a teacher who saw the value in showing six-year-olds a NASA space ship flying low over his school.

Space Shuttle Enterprise came to Scotland on an exhibition flight, piggybacking a 747, en route not to the Moon, but Glasgow Airport.

Tiny minds were excited with a feeling of proximity to outer space.

Almost 30 years later, former NASA worker Kevin Fong's brilliant, misty-eyed tribute to the shuttle's swansong stirred the same thoughts.

So. Where to next?

Two happy Hours are twice the fun

2011-07-21T05:55:10Z

The Hour, BBC2, Tuesday; The Hour, STV, Weekdays

IT'S not how I remember it. There was no sign of Michelle McManus' cleavage for one thing.

No sign of Anita Manning purring over an old Oor Wullie album and not even a discreet flash of Stella Bartram's Lycra-wrapped bum.

This version of The Hour on BBC2 didn't even have a telly reviewer. Pah.

For the last two years, I've crossed the Clyde to talk telly with McManus and Jardine, once STV's answer to Moonlighting's Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd. Cough.

I've been reluctantly dubbed Square Eyes on account of my telly-watching, been sat on by a Krankie, peed on by a spaniel and rubbed by Sue Pollard.

The Hour is defiantly cheap and determinedly cheerful. It's like opening TV's lucky bag. One day, Juliette Lewis, the next an item about dogs in pyjamas.

Occasionally naff, frequently camp, often (un)intentionally hilarious. But always watchable.

Even if it's only to pick over Michelle's hair, clothes, weight and patter - a national obsession with Scottish women.

She's no Mary Marquis, but she balances ample measures of self deprecation, "aye, right" Glesga gallus and granny-pleasing familiarity.

Ironically, in the week where its current format ends, BBC chiefs launched a show of the same name.

The Hour had more in common with The (other) Hour than just the title. Like Michelle's wardrobe and hairdos, it has also been influenced by American drama Mad Men.

Set during the time of flux in the BBC and starring Romola Garai, Ben Whishaw and Dominic West, it shone a light on the effect of change in the media, office relationships and working women in the 1950s.

And, this being the media, it touched on themes of lies, death and corruption. How timely.

Such lavish attention to period detail risked The Hour becoming an exercise in style over substance but after one episode, I'm hooked.

Which is more than its producers could say about The (other) Hour. They said they'd never heard of the Scottish version.

Next they'll claim they don't know the Krankies...

Switch on/Switch off

2011-07-21T05:34:07Z

SWITCH ON

The Corrie Years, STV, Wednesday

Corrie do a "best bits" series when their storyliners are currently going through a "worst bits" phase.

Talk about self sabotage.

Imagine - Harry Nilsson: The Missing Beatle, BBC1, Tuesday

Brilliant. They'll be making documentaries like this in 30 years time about The Wanted and N-Dubz. Make sure you're out that night.

SWITCH OFF

The Removal Men, Five, Wednesday

Seriously? A documentary about the guys from Pickfords? What next? A six-parter about the woman who does night shift at the BP garage at Harthill?

Richard Hammond: Journey to The Centre of The Planet, BBC1, Tuesday

Hammond and his silly hair are everywhere. Top Gear. Wipeout. This. And judging from the look of that new Dragon they're advertising on Dragon's Den, he's going part-time as Hilary Devey now, too...

Winner Tom had the magic touch

2011-07-21T05:34:05Z

Jum frum NornIrn should have won. Apart from anything else, it means I lost my annual lunch bet with TV host and Apprentice addict Kaye Adams.

First time for everything. Everyone knows the reasons. Jum was the Roy Keane of the boardroom - solid and dependable, moody and smooth.

He didn't kiss the Blarney Stone so much as have a six-month affair with it.

But Tom, the Harry Potter of the boardroom? Must have slipped through the Junior Apprentice auditions...

Torchwood's living the American dream

2011-07-21T05:34:03Z

It's like Lethal Weapon crossed with Gavin & Stacey. Torchwood has been given an injection of something fairly potent - America.

The high-octane action of John Barrowman and the team fizzed between CIA investigations in Washington, and, er, rainy days in Cardiff.

It sets an interesting precedent. Regional BBC shows teaming up with megabucks transatlantic producers.

Shieldinch and Baltimore fused to make Wire City. Gary Tank Commander with the budget of Band of Brothers.

The premise - that people stop dying - is typically Russell T Davies, the man who brought Doctor Who back.

And forget this being kids' telly. It's more gruesome than dinner at Gillian McKeith's.

No matter how much money they throw at it, Davies' writing still grounds it in the everyday, even if he was fooling no one with the 'aliens become mortal, mortals become aliens' storyline. Yes, we've seen Superman II, too.

Still, for a sci-fi show, it's almost believable. On this form, I hope Torchwood never dies.

Quote of the week

2011-07-21T05:34:01Z

"You mean Wales is separate from England?" howled one Yank riding across the Severn Bridge in Torchwood.

"It's like the British equivalent of New Jersey...."

And finally

2011-07-21T05:34:00Z

AFTER Japan - still dealing with nuclear disaster - was said to have gone into "hysterical meltdown" on winning the women's World Cup (Guy Mowbray) then Mark James claiming golf success might halt the Northern Ireland troubles, we await BBC confirmation that Ron Atkinson hasn't become a commentary mentor.

ABBEY EVER AFTER

2011-07-21T05:33:56Z

Viewers in Scotland are finally being given the chance to see ITV hit Downton Abbey.

The second series of the award-winning period drama, which stars Hugh Bonneville and Dame Maggie Smith, has been confirmed in STV's new autumn schedule.

And the first series will be shown on Sunday afternoons next month.

Last year, a new series of Taggart was shown on STV in place of the period drama, along with a repeat of a Billy Connolly travel series from 1995.

Access While Taggart achieved healthy viewing figures, many viewers in Scotland were left angry that they'd been denied access to what turned out to be ITV's most successful drama in decades.

Many opted to watch the show via digital channel ITV London or on the itv.com website.

Downton Abbey, which also starred Scots actress Phyllis Logan, drew a whopping 11.6million viewers in other parts of the UK.

The show's Scottish debut comes after the resolution of a legal battle between STV and ITV.

STV's decision not to show high-profile ITV shows such as Marple, Midsomer Murders, Benidorm and Downton Abbey was a central part of the wrangle. But the legal claims and counter-claims were resolved in March, with a deal which saw STV agree to pay ITV £4.8million.

STV's Bobby Hain said: "We're delighted to bring viewers the first airing of series one of Downton Abbey in Scotland and the much anticipated second series as part of our autumn schedule. " Phyllis Logan, who plays housekeeper Mrs Hughes, said: "I'm delighted. It means my family and friends will be able to watch it at the same time as the rest of the UK.

"This might push our viewing figures up even higher."

Fellow Scot Iain Glen will also feature in the second series.

He said: "I am delighted people in Scotland will be able to see what all the fuss has been about."

Series one of Downton Abbey will start on August 7 at 4pm. Series two will follow on Sundays at 9pm beginning on September 18.