Come in from the stress of all that rush, rush holiday shopping and theatergoing and nestle next to a blazing fireplace or into a plush sofa to enjoy some diverse reading. Books make excellent stocking stuffers.
Maggie Smith- A Biography
No one does glamour, severity, or tight-lipped witticism better than three-time Tony nominee and winner for Lettice and Loveage [one of only four Broadway outings], and six-time Oscar nominee with two wins, Dame Maggie Smith. Michael Coveney’s Maggie Smith – A Biography (St. Martin’s Press: 331 pages; hardcover and Kindle; three B&W and color photo sections; index; SRP $28) shines a light on one of the greatest actors of our time.
Dame Maggie is also an 11-time GG nominee with two wins [one for her portrayal of Downton Abbey’s formidable, quite opinionated Dowager Countess Violet Crawley]; and an eight-time Emmy nominee with three wins [two, as above]. There’re also five U.K. Evening Standard Awards and their Icon honor, six Olivier nominations and a special honor; and BAFTA wins.
Written with Dame Maggie’s cooperation, Coveney, a respected U.K. theater critic, draws from personal archives, as well as interviews with family, friends, and peers. You expect Dame Maggie to speak her mind, and you won’t be disappointed as the author examines in depth the effort she imbed in over six decades of characters onstage and on film/TV. He’s fortunate to have access to her recollections of early days on the West End in comedies and revues, her Broadway debut, and the paths she crossed with great actors, playwrights, and directors.
Maggie Smith was a fixture at the Royal National Theatre in the 60s, most notably portraying Desdemona in Othello opposite Laurence Olivier, whom she frequently clashed with due to his egomania [when she refused to follow a stage direction – because he felt she was upstaging him, he had the audacity to slap her – something she never let him forget]. Among her numerous acclaimed performances on the West End was Alan Bennett’s Lady in the Van, now onscreen, expanded by Bennett and starring Dame Maggie.
Her film and television career has been just as starry. From The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and the meddling chaperone in A Room With a View to the Harry Potter films (in which she plays Minerva McGonagall, who was, she writes, “’Miss Jean Brodie in a wizard’s hat”), and her wise Muriel Donnelly in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films.
Dame Maggie is one of Britain’s most recognizable names. Thanks to her role in the Potter franchise and six seasons of Downton Abbey scenestealing [Olivier would be proud, but might turn down the opportunity to appear opposite her again], she’s won the hearts of millions more here.
Downton Abbey: A Celebration
From that first moment in 2010 when we entered the gilded corridors of those born to the manor in Downton Abbey (ITV-UK/PBS) and the April 1912 news of friends of Britain’s Crawley family going down with the Titanic, Oscar, Emmy, and Golden Globe-winning writer, producer, best-selling author, and actor Julian Fellowes [adaptor of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s School of Rock] drew us into the evocative and intriguing world of the aristocracy and their servants.
In January, for its sixth season, it’s 1925 and the family is preparing to close its doors. Jessica Fellowes, niece of Julian and author of several Downton chronicles, has created a tribute more than worthy of this Emmy-winning MASTERPIECE phenomenon in Downton Abbey –- A Celebration – The Official Companion to All Six Seasons (St. Martin’s Press; 320 pages; hardcover/coffee table size; stunning color photos – many full-page and with 11 standout double-trunks; cast profiles; episode guide; Foreword by Julian Fellows; SRP $30).
The book, through Nick Briggs’magnificent photos and numerous interviews, travels with ease from WWI through suitors, engagements, weddings, heartbreak, death, scandals, snobbery, trials and tribulations, haute décor, and fashions as the Abbey emerges into the modern age.
The series with period drama at its very best is helped immensely by an excellent cast – Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Dame Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery (Lady Mary), Jim Carter (Carson), Phyllis Logan (Mrs. Hughes), Brendan Coyle (Bates), Joanne Froggatt (Anna Bates) and Laura Carmichael (Lady Edith), Leslie Nicol (Mrs. Patmore), Penelope Wilton (Isobel Crawley); and, among others, Sophie McShera (Daisy).
It’s impossible not to credit production designer Donal Woods; costumes by Caroline McCall, Anna Robbins, Susannah Buxton, and Rosalind Ebbut; and cinematography mainly by Nigel Willoughby, Graham Frake, and Gavin Struthers.
Needless to say, Ms. Fellowes had full access to front-of-camera and behind-the-scenes and is an apt guide through the house – upstairs and downstairs.
== Don’t miss Sunday’s A Salute to Downton Abbey (PBS; 7 P.M.; check local listings), a 90-minute special hosted by Lord Crawley himself, Hugh Bonneville that will preview the new season previous ones with clips, interviews with Fellowes, executive producer Gareth Neame, and cast. ==
Ellis Nassour is an Ole Miss alum and noted arts journalist and author who recently donated an ever-growing exhibition of performing arts history to the University of Mississippi. He is the author of the best-selling Patsy Cline biography, Honky Tonk Angel, as well as the hit musical revue, Always, Patsy Cline.
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