Lloydalists: Another Roundup!

It often seems that when it comes to news about Harry Lloyd we’re either in a drought of sorts or were getting drenched.  This time however it’s been trickling in over the past couple weeks. So for some Lloydalists, this isn’t going to be anything new, but for those who don’t search daily, this is for you.

Recently Harry has been spending his time sitting behind the microphone rather than in front of the camera. Two of his recent projects are "A World Intact" and "The Cazalets Confusion".



Harry lending his voice to a couple
dramas on BBC Radio 4.

Airing April 18, 2013 on BBC Radio 4, “A World Intact” by Adam Foulds is set in the last years of the Second World War, a young man, Will, returns from training to his rural home to find everything unchanged - but no longer where he actually belongs (Approx 15 minutes).

In “The Cazalets Confusion” Harry stars as Hugo in episodes 7 and 8. ‘Confusion’ is the third of four compelling Cazalet novels by Elizabeth Jane Howard, which together give a vivid insight into the lives, hopes and loves of three generations during the Second World War and beyond.  It originally aired on BBC Radio 4 April 30^th and May 1st 2013 (Both approx. 14 minutes each).  If you’d like to listen to any of these, we will provide links at the end of this entry.



Kevin aka @MorningVent and Harry
pause a moment on set to take a photo.

This next bit of news was first brought to our attention when tweets from those who had auditioned began to surface on twitter. Morgan Casting Inc. held two days of casting in Canton, Mississippi for what they’re currently calling the “Untitled Uncorked Production” film starting April 21^st, 2013. Harry, having already been cast, sat in on the auditions.

“Just did an improv scene with Harry Lloyd from Game of Thrones. I was auditioning for an upcoming movie he’s starring in! Evidently, he is helping out with casting.” says @Murrr_Kate on twitter (4/24/13).




 Touchups!

On April 27^th Kevin aka @MorningVent tweeted the news that he was cast in the film as a “southern guy chewing tobacco, spitting in a cup and filling up his truck”.

Filming began May 6 and will continue through May 28 in primarily Mississippi but also North Carolina and Virginia.The only description we have for the plot of this film thus far is “It's a super cool project about a road trip!!” We’ll definitely keep everyone posted as more news rolls in.

And finally..."In 2022, all classes of drugs have been legalized. Drecks are an elite unit created by an over-stretched police force to keep the black market dealers off the streets and the licensed drug companies rich.

When Dreck and former addict Frank Grieves is called to investigate an unidentifiable corpse, he makes a connection to the biggest and most powerful drug company of them all: Ambro. But Ambro have friends in high places and as his corrupt superiors turn on him, Grieves finds himself cut loose by the law and separated from the people he loves. The only way to clear his name is to find the identity of the dead body and its connection to Ambro. But not even Grieves can predict what the future has in store.”

Dreck’s philosophy is to make a commercially viable, inventive, independent and ambitious British feature film. It’s definitely a film people will want to see! To achieve this, they have taken a different approach to production. They raised their finance 100% independently, which freed them up to work with up and coming talent alongside established names both behind and in front of the camera.  Over 18 months they assembled the film. Many British films struggle commercially because they are too expensive to produce and fail to recoup. By prioritizing quality over speed, they have kept their budget low and their hopes high.

To ensure Dreck makes its way to us, they are putting resources into ensuring that they are completely primed to get the film in front of the right people at the right time. Using kickstarter.com they are accepting pledges for this next part of the journey. Having just over two weeks to go they are already halfway to their goal.  If this project is something you’re interested in please check out the link below to pledge or find out more!  For those who pledge, there are different rewards varying from posters, copy of the DVD, a screening of the film and much more.

Finally, we want to express how happy we are to hear about Harry’s BAFTA nomination for best supporting actor in “The Fear”. His portrayal of Matty Beckett was fantastic and we can’t wait to see what this year’s awards ceremony brings. We haven’t heard if Harry will be going since he is currently filming in Mississippi, but hopefully he’ll be able to take a small time out this weekend and we’ll be able to see him at the BAFTAs.

Links:
https://soundcloud.com/#harrylloyd/a-world-intact
https://soundcloud.com/#harrylloyds/cazalets-confusion-episode-7
https://soundcloud.com/#harrylloyds/cazalets-confusion-episode-8
https://www.facebook.com/events/141113392732679/permalink/141113396066012/#!/events/161928667305447/
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/221697723/dreck-breakout-british-sc-fi-thriller/?ref=kicktraq
http://awards.bafta.org/award/2013/television


Thank you, Kevin. We appreciate you
sharing your photos!
 

Desire, Another “Duchess” Project, and December Delights: The Real and Potentially-Real Rumors of Harry’s Latest Projects (and Photographs)

With The Fear (2012) having concluded nearly two months ago during the four-day early-December marathon viewing of the mini-series, Lloydalists has been keeping a savvy-eye out for new news about Harry Lloyd’s upcoming projects.  While 2013 still promises us the offerings of Dreck and Closer to the Moon, we haven’t much more to add about the developments of those two pictures.  And we have yet to give our full-report of The Fear, the DVD-release of which has seemingly without been explanation been either pushed-back or cancelled.  (As a fellow Lloydalist has told us, a pre-order of the DVD on two different websites has resulted in an email explaining that the order has been cancelled; currently, Amazon.co.uk has removed the pre-order option for The Fear DVD from its site.)

All of these minor bits of business aside, this past week has dropped into our laps a couple of new Lloydalists-worthy tidbits of news, as well as Harry’s latest project, a radio broadcast.

No need to laugh—it’s no joke!  There’s finally some Harry Lloyd news for 2013.

Image: © Scotsman/Lee Randall, 2012.

 

 

Every Duchess in England (1931)

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on January 23, 2013, the 45-minute performance of Alan Pollock’s Every Duchess in England was led by a cast of actors including Tobias Menzies and Harry Lloyd.  The program is listenable HERE or four more days (until January 27^th). 

 

Produced and directed by Gaynor Macfarlane, the 1931-occurring male-dominated story shows England straining beneath the burden of financial crises.  The BBC Radio 4 site adds that “austerity measures and a Coalition government” do not help to make matters any better. “Frustrated by the failure of the political class to take on the might of the banks, maverick Labour MP Oswald Mosley,” called “Tom” and played in the radio program by Tobias Menzies, “attempts to take things into his own hands by forming a New Party” (Pollock).  Of course, Mosley’s plans have been mostly initiated while his co-founder and fellow Birmingham MP John Strachey (Harry Lloyd) has been out of the country and touring Europe.  When Strachey returns, however, it does not take long for him to see through the growing agitation, concern, and pretense of his old friend “Tom” Mosley.  In fact, Lloyd’s Strachey, in an affected, slightly-posh, upper-crust voice, “quickly comes to question the motives of his larger-than-life friend” (Pollock).  “When you speak, things happen,” Lloyd’s Strachey reminds Tom at one point: indeed, such remarks are leading precursors to Strachey’s growing realization that something is troubled in England and within the person of his old friend.  At another point, John remarks to Mosley, “This is not like you.  This is not like you at all!”  Meanwhile, Mosley’s continued, tenacious insistence that Harry’s John is acting strange because he is tired from his long journeys seems a glaring beacon of distress.

Harry is skilled at revealing and “showing” through sound frustration.  In one heightened moment, he complains most assiduously to Tom, “I suddenly feel like one of those creatures from the newspaper cartoons,” dangling “over the cliff!”  Any hint of cartoonishness in the expression is overtaken by the sobriety of the moment between the two men. 

 

Tom reassures John that the only reason he feels this way is “[b]ecause you have had the courage to stick your head over the wall, and people are beginning to take shots,” which “proves that there is something worth taking a shot at.”

Or that they’ve made a big mistake, as Lloyd’s John very seriously suggests.

At another juncture in the story, perhaps the most climactic portion and encounter between the two men, John tells an impatient Tom, “something rather ugly happened” during his trip when he happens to have encountered an old Oxford friend.  It’s the beginning of a warning that Tom does not seem ready to accept, or aware that it is coming.  He is wholly distracted and not keen about listening to Strachey’s travel narratives.  Yet, the story about the Nazis who come calling and an unexpected encounter with “a subversive” begins to rattle the nerves of both men. It is Harry Lloyd’s brash, engaging, powerful retelling of this story, though, that paints it for us, the listeners.  Quickly and fluidly, he shifts from his story into the pressing present circumstances.

“[W]e are in the grip of the most profound crisis this country has ever faced,” John gently yet intensely reminds Tom, who agrees, and that they need a way to get “out of this mess.  We’ve been calling this idea a ‘new start,’” and Tom quickly interjects, insisting that it must be a “corporate” decision, of all the people in society “acting as limbs,” orchestrated together as one moving body. John reassures his friend, “I know what you’re up against…political party doesn’t pay for itself, I know, but the fact is—the plain fact—” but then the growing roar of John’s voice is interrupted by a knock at the door.

The mood is temporarily dispelled and even though it is a radio broadcast, the program is well-orchestrated enough that the scene of these two men in a closeted chamber watching the roaring crowd below from a perch at a window seems reasonably tangible.

 

After the interruption, Tom tells John that he believes that England is on the edge of “catastrophe,” based upon “the evidence of our eyes, John.”  It is the swelling, clamorous crowd against Tom Mosley, or so the latter thinks, having felt imprisoned by his thoughts and political limitations since the War.   John won’t hear of it, though: “this is nothing more than fury against us, […] for betraying the friends who supported us.”

Tom feels the fury will spread, but John assures him, “it won’t.  This is fantasy, Tom; pure fantasy.” And yet, there is hesitation and apprehension in his fiery tone.  “Put my mind at rest,” he commands Tom.  “Tell me you did not intend for this to happen.”

 

A moment of hesitation, a slight sound of the crowd outside, and then, Tom’s response: “no.”

And soon after, John starts talking about the “rumors” going around and the “vacuum [that] is opening up.” The crowd begins to get unruly, and Tom and John seem heavy-breathed and worn.  An escape plan is then decided by Ted “Kid” Lewis (Jonathan Tafler), Mosley’s devoted assistant: but is it viable or wishful-thinking?  And is John even willing to let Tom get away so fast before he can continue sharing his stories and working psychologically upon his old friend?  “Chipping away,” as he says at one point, at Tom’s mental state?  Indeed, the main criticism that may be launched at the story is that John’s motives seem awkwardly misdirected or misplaced, as if he’s fumbling between the roles of friend and enemy without any sense of which is which.  Never mind: the banter between John and Tom, and the movement between their moments of accordance and discordances, often juxtaposed against the crowd’s din, is enough to keep the listener listening for the just-under-an-hour broadcast.

To find out what happens next, and to enjoy the pervasively desperate yet strict and tenacious voice of Harry Lloyd as he embodies the shrewd John Strachey, listen for yourself at the link above!  Or, for those of us on the other side of the pond, Harry Lloyd Tumblr has provided the audio of the program HERE.

Pensive Harry Lloyd, circa December 2012: Deep in-thought, just as John Strachey likely would be.
Image: © Scotsman/Lee Randall, 2012.

 

Over all, and like most of its kind, the radio program is an intimate affair, highly-propelled forward in narrative by the voice-acting of the talented Lloyd and Menzies.  It’s a political piece, as well as a timeless story of struggle, discrimination (such as anti-Semitism), and class-differences. The title refers to a line Mosley utters in a half-joking moment when every duchess in England may want to kiss the hand of the man who fixes things in the country.

Writer/Producer Macfarlane has done a substantially fine job tuning-up the additional touches, such as sound effects and background “voices,” to flesh-out the narrative and add the necessary touches of ambiance.  The slightly more dramatic music that swells into the story every now and then is a fine touch, bookending the taut and tight framework of the narrative complementarily. Yet, it is Pollock’s writing that makes this piece move along at a palpable rate, not to mention the actors behind it this time around.  The dialogue moves quickly when moments of panic arise; it pauses and crackles to represent the tense moments.  The program is like a stage production, the characters’ language highly-illuminating yet becoming the costume, setting, and props, too.  Yet neither Harry Lloyd nor Tobias Menzies are heavy-handed (or –voiced) and melodramatic in this otherwise pedestrian drama.  Truly, the actors save what could have been a dry tale by infusing in it inspired moments of perfected tones, meaningful exchanges that sound refreshingly vivid, and believable commentaries. 

 

December Photos Finally See the Light!

Thanks to Lloydalist “Roox Targaryen,” who Tweets via @ValyriaValkyria, we’ve found some unseen-by-us-before photographs of Harry that appear to be of the same shoot as the photo that complemented Lee Randall’s thorough, wonderful interview with him in December 2012 (read it ONLINE HERE, and be sure to contribute to the already-encouraging comments there!).  We’ll likely smatter our blog with the occasional image from the shoot whenever we’re in the mood to do so, but for those of you unwilling to wait: our Twitter feed has all the goods posted on its photos section.  Enjoy!

 

Casually Charming.

Image: © Scotsman/Lee Randall, 2012.

Desire (2013)—A Short Film and Long Rumor?

While Lloydalists has heard nor found anything further to confirm or deny the rumors, Harry Lloyd has been listed as the lead in an upcoming short film called Desire.  The news emerged this week via Star Now, a talent and filming website (“‘Desire’”).  While no plot or summary or even keywords have been revealed, we do know (if the rumors are true) that shooting will take place in Crouch End on February 9^th and 10^th and that the production company is currently looking for extras of all ages to work for no pay but who will “be well fed and looked after,” according to the site (“‘Desire’”).  Other cast members attached are Natalie Gumede and Lauren Drummond, and Director of Photography is Paul Jenkins.

Lloydalists will keep an eye open and an ear out for any further news, but we also welcome any information from our readers.  You can comment below or email us at Lloydalists@gmail.com, if you have something worth sharing.  You can also, as always, find us on Twitter: @Lloydalists.

In the end, we “desire” to know more about Desire, as well as any other Harry Lloyd projects that may be budding as we speak!  Thanks in advance.

 

 

Special thanks to the fan(s) behind Harry Lloyd Tumblr for making the radiocast of Every Duchess in England so readily-available to others.  Also, thanks to Lee Randall for her exceptional interview and photographs that stemmed from that encounter, and to Roox Targaryen (@ValyriaValkyria) for her investigative skills and the sharing of the photographs.

 

 

Works Cited & Referenced 

“‘Desire’—a Short Film—London.” StarNow.co.nz. 21 Jan. 2013. Web. <http://www.starnow.co.nz/listings/ListingDetail.aspx?l_id=421192>.

Harry Lloyd Tumblr. 24 Jan. 2013. Web. <http://harry-lloyd.tumblr.com/post/41378068431/every-duchess-in-england-starring-harry-lloyd-as>.

Pollock, Alan. Every Duchess in England. Perf. Tobias Menzies, Harry Lloyd, Jonathan Tafler, et al. BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Drama. BBC.co.uk. 23 Jan. 2012. Web. 26 Jan. 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pzv2j>.

Randall, Lee. “Harry’s Gain: Why TV Drama is Banking on Harry Lloyd.” Scotsman.com. 2 Dec. 2012. Web. <http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/books/reviews-and-news/harry-s-gain-why-tv-drama-is-banking-on-harry-lloyd-1-2671559>.

 

~ Researched by K & C; Written and Posted by C ~