In 2005, Ginny Dougary wrote the lyrics for a collection of songs about David Blunkett’s life and recent times. These were showcased at the Soho Theatre under the working title of David Blunkett The Musical; a collaboration with the composer MJ Paranzino and producer Martin Witts who was behind the award-winning one-man-play, Hurricane. The actors …
The lyricist for David Blunkett: The Musical, reveals how the show was inspired and explains why the real-life characters are perfect for the stage. The life of the musical began, in a curious way, last summer before the news about any of the key players had even broken. I had gone to the Bloomsbury office …
Richard Eyre found the making of his first big film about Iris Murdoch a form of therapy, a way of coming to terms with his own parents life and death. There is little in Sir Richard Eyre’s person or habitat to suggest a troubled soul beset by fundamental uncertainties. Indeed, if he hadn’t chosen to …
There’s never been a film star quite like Elizabeth Taylor: the eyes, the diamonds, the men, the myth. And at 67 she still reigns supreme despite her self-imposed celluloid exile. Ginny Dougary of The Times (London) is granted a rare audience. The Russian taxi driver is the first to see her. “Look, there she is. …
Kenneth Branagh appears to think he is in a comedy sketch in which the interviewer is cast as the fall guy. Our question and answer routine is like something scripted by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. All the punch lines hinge on the same word. ”Isn’t it stressful”, I ask, ”directing the woman you live …