001 – From Clare: How have you family (Susan included) influenced your career? Well I think mostly through their absolute continued unquestioning support for whatever I embark upon. Susan particularly is a very good springboard for various choices that I have made so I do share all the choices that I make. I think that my mum and dad particularly, it was about the honesty of what one was trying to do, and the respect for the audience. Very early on my father taught me about respect for the audience. I’m not sure I was ever really gonna go down in a daft way with it but certainly that I think has been a very important part in how I deal with the public. I’m always giving the time for other people even within a busy schedule.
This site looks like it’s no longer online, so here is the full article.
Counterstrike, a hit series about billionaire industrialist Alexander Addington (Christopher Plummer) whose passion for justice is implemented by a three-member strike team.
Plummer is a film and theatre legend. He has starred and costarred in over 40 feature films, including The Sound of Music, The Man Who Would Be King, The Return of The Pink Panther and Star Trek VI.
As Addington on Counterstrike, he formed his strike team after his wife was kidnapped by an international terrorist organization.
The search for her proved unsuccessful. Nevertheless, he vowed that behind the cover of his financial empire, he would help eliminate criminals who currently find sanctuary in the cracks between existing law enforcement organizations.
Leading the strike team is Peter Sinclair (Simon MacCorkindale) – featured on this week’s cover.
Sinclair, a former Scotland Yard inspector – the youngest in the history of the Yard – is also a legendary hostage negotiator.
MacCorkindale made his stage debut at age eight. From this humble beginning, his love for theatre was born. During the next nine years he wrote, produced, directed and/or acted in some 25 productions at school and with local groups.
Upon leaving high school he was accepted as a drama student at Studio 68 of Theatre Arts in London, England. And, as luck would have it, by the end of his first year he was signed to play a leading role in George Bernard Shaw’s The Dark Lady of the Sonnets.
After a number of appearances in the regional theatres in England, he made his West End debut in the highly-acclaimed 1974 production of Pygmalion.
In this week’s Counterstrike (Saturday on CTV), Simon MacCorkindale played coach to rocker and neophyte actress Latoya Jackson—a bit of “stunt casting” that works, says MacCorkindale, because her role was tailored to her “extraordinary look” and “natural abilities.” In the show, Jackson (left, with MacCorkindale) plays a fashion maven with deadly designs on her models for the most bloodcurdling of reasons. “It’s a weird, off-the-wall” episode, MacCorkindale admits, but Jackson “pitched right into it. She listened and watched, and she learned very quickly. I’ve seen a lot of people who’ve been in the business for years who didn’t have the relaxation and the wit to learn the technique as quickly as she did.”
Series: Counterstrike Episode: S3Ep13 – Betrayed First Aired: 9 January 1993 Character: Peter Sinclair
Description: Publishing magnate Julia Devane is the target of an assassination attempt. Addington puts Peter in charge of her security, and the two fall for each other, but can Peter be sure of her intentions?
Series: Counterstrike Episode: S3Ep12 – Bosnian Connection First Aired: 20 December 1992 Character: Peter Sinclair
Description: The head of an Addington-supported charity in war-torn Bosnia disappears during the civil war. To find her, Stone becomes a dock-worker, Peter takes her place in Bosnia and Gabrielle looks at the charity’s New York office.
Series: Counterstrike Episode: S3Ep10 – D.O.A. First Aired: 5 December 1992 Character: Peter Sinclair
Description: Poisoned by a terrorist’s lover, Sinclair confronts his dark side as he fights for his life while his associates attempt to retrieve the antidote.
Elite anti-crime team works to uphold justice Got an international conflict that needs to be handled with a delicate – but effective – touch? The Counterstrike team is ready for action
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They’re a team with a mission. They work behind the scenes, to apprehend criminals who might otherwise be above the law. They also work with an efficiency that can only come from being the best in their respective fields.
They are the Counterstrike team, an elite anti-crime ‘strike-team’ consisting of a multi-billionaire industrialist, a world-renowned journalist, an ex-SEAL, and a former Scotland Yard inspector and hostage negotiator. Counterstrike, now well into its second season, airs 9:30 pm Saturdays on NTV.
The action-adventure series blasted onto the scene in November of 1991, with an episode featuring a brutal terriorist kidnapping. Ultra-wealthy Alexander Addington (played by Christopher Plummer) was shot and his wife kidnapped by a group of international criminals. Addington finds his efforts to save his wife stiffled by bureaucracy and vows to do everything to uphold justice.
Series: Counterstrike Episode: S3Ep9 – Cyborg First Aired: 21 November 1992 Character: Peter Sinclair
Description: A genetically modified East German operative kills a scientist and goes after an official who is about to testify to Congress. Counterstrike team enlists the operative’s twin sister to track her down.
Series: Counterstrike Episode: S3Ep8 – Death Seal First Aired: 14 November 1992 Character: Peter Sinclair
Description: Airplane full of Stone’s Navy Seal buddies gets shot down. Stone’s lone investigation reveals a cover-up by a rogue colonel. In the ensuing shootout, Stone gets wounded, but he escapes. His pals try to find him.
Series: Counterstrike Episode: S3Ep7 – The Curse of the Amber Chamber First Aired: 7 November 1992 Character: Peter Sinclair
Description: Strange accidents happen to an archaeological team searching for hidden Nazi loot in Germany’s Black Forest. Then, Peter and Gabrielle get trapped in a Nazi war-room, while Stone tries to find help.
Series: Counterstrike Episode: S3Ep6 – Skin Deep First Aired: 31 October 1992 Character: Peter Sinclair
Description: Voodoo-related murders are claiming the lives of fashion models. The suspects are a creepy fashion designer and a photographer. The Counterstrike team try to solve this whodunit.
Series: Counterstrike Episode: S3Ep5 – No Honour Among Thieves First Aired: 24 October 1992 Character: Peter Sinclair
Description: An old flame of Addington’s persuades him to protect her half-brother Lemke, a Mafiosi whose associates are trying to kill him. Stone plays bodyguard to Lemke, while Peter does the legwork.
Series: Counterstrike Episode: S3Ep4 – Bastille Day Terror First Aired: 17 October 1992 Character: Peter Sinclair
Description: An ex-KGB agent and his female partner steal a Soviet nuclear missile and smuggle it into France to deliver it to the buyer. The Counterstrike team scrambles to find these arms merchants and retrieve the missile.
Series: Counterstrike Episode: S3Ep3 – Til Death Do Us Part First Aired: 10 October 1992 Character: Peter Sinclair
Description: Along with a ransom demand, Addington receives a video showing his wife who was kidnapped years ago and considered dead. Counterstrike team tries to catch the kidnapper, an old nemesis of Peter’s.
Series: Counterstrike Episode: S3Ep2 – The Sting First Aired: 2 October 1992 Character: Peter Sinclair
Description: Addington’s friend, a restaurateur is in the clutches of a protection racket run by the Purple Gang, a subsidiary of the Mafia. So the Counterstrike team takes on the mob to set things right.
