This interview was carried out with Simon on the 10th February at the London Palladium. There is a video message that was filmed at the same time and audio can be found on the forum – in Simon’s Secret Society. This is Simon in his own words (i.e. typed word for word what he said)
001 – What’s next I really don’t know is the answer. I’m doing a couple of things, there are a number of things being talked about, but nothing that’s absolutely carved in granite. I’m gonna do another day on another movie, literally next week, for a friend, the same sort of set up as that other one, who’s title I think is the one you saw.
IT has more twists than a 1960s dance festival and – if done properly – a jaw-dropping surprise. Sleuth, which opens at Theatre Royal in Newcastle tonight, is a cat and mouse thriller which continually wrong-foots audiences – if they haven’t seen it before, of course.
Simon MacCorkindale, who stars in Anthony Schaffer’s award-winning play alongside former Dynasty actor Michael Praed, reckons there are still plenty of Sleuth novices around.
(Mainly a Sleuth review) Thanks to Sylvia for this article
THE stage is set for the ultimate game of chance this week – played out in this version of the Anthony Shaffer classic by two of the most attractive actors in the business. Simon MacCorkindale (best-known for his role of Harry Harper in Casualty) plays Andrew Wyke, who takes on his wife’s lover Milo Tindle (played by Michael Praed of Robin of Sherwood fame) in the biggest game of his life – and there can only be one winner.
Thanks to Kathie – SMCFP’s Northern Correspondent 😉
Detective skills are hardly needed to work out why last year’s new film of Sleuth flopped while this year’s new theatre version is packing them in, but let the play’s star Simon MacCorkindale help work it out.
“They departed from the original material and most of the things that were attractive in the original got left out,” says the Casualty heart-throb.
(Mainly a Sleuth review – Contains spoilers) Thanks to SMCFP member Kerri
SLEUTH’S first night was at the Theatre Royal Brighton 38 years ago. I was there. A few seats along from me was Laurence Olivier, who, apparently, had some unflattering things to say about it.
Two years later, with the thriller a huge hit, Olivier himself starred with Michael Caine in a film version. Now it’s back on stage with Simon MacCorkindale and Michael Praed in the two key roles.
But not just on TV— in real life, accident-prone actor often finds himself in hospital
THERE’S a reason why Simon MacCorkindale carries off the role of consultant Harry Harper in BBC’s Casualty so well — he’s never out of his local hospital’s casualty department as a patient!
He and his wife, actress Susan George, run a very successful horse farm when not appearing on stage or screen, and Simon is very much hands-on down on the farm.
It seems appropriate that one of the characters in Sleuth spends a significant amount of time in a clown suit, as this production milks the comic potential of Anthony Shaffer’s twisted script.
On the opening night, underwear and cushions were hurled about with reckless abandon, threatening to bring down bits of the set. And Michael Praed finally fell foul of his size 27 feet in a pratfall behind the sofa, which appeared to leave him and co-star Simon MacCorkindale as convulsed with laughter as the audience. Whether by accident or intent it was as well executed as the rest of this slickly performed show, which also relies on deliciously barbed dialogue for its humour.
Casualty star Simon MacCorkindale tells Alison Jones why he has packed away his stethoscope and returned to the stage.
It is always a challenge following in the footsteps of an actor who has become irrevocably associated with a part.
Particularly if that actor casts as long a shadow as the late Sir Laurence Olivier.
In the recent film remake of the thriller Sleuth, director Kenneth Branagh rather cleverly got round the problem by having Michael Caine swop roles.
In the 1972 Joseph L Mankiewicz version, Caine played Milo Tindle, the upstart young lover of Olivier’s wife who is unwillingly drawn into an elaborate battle of wits.
In 2007 it was Caine’s turn to play the vengeful, cuckolded husband (Andrew Wyke), with Jude Law repeating another Caine role after already starring in Alfie.
For the stage production currently doing the regional rounds, comparisons to Larry are avoided by the fact that Andrew, played by Simon MacCorkindale, has effectively been aged down and Milo, played by Michael Praed, aged up.
Well it is very difficult to know where to start with this review… how to tread lightly enough not to give away what is most spectacular and clever about Anthony Shaffer’s complex thriller.
STAGE CLASSIC IS BRINGING OUT THE MANIMAL IN SIMON
He was the English aristocrat of choice a decade before Colin Firth emerged from a lake to become a housewife heartthrob and Hollywood star.
Simon MacCorkindale played the upper-crust cad in some of the most popular American television series of the 1980s – from The Dukes of Hazzard and Hart To Hart to Dynasty and Falcon Crest.
Now he’s taking to the Nottingham stage as a devious author in the revival of psychological thriller Sleuth, alongside his Dynasty co-star and former TV Robin Hood Michael Praed.
SIMON LEAVES CASUALTY TO TAKE ON OLIVIER’S KEY ROLE
One of television’s best-loved doctors has marched out of accident and emergency and into a stage play that has become a modern classic.Simon MacCorkindale, whose character Harry Harper left Casualty two episodes ago, takes the leading role of Andrew in Sleuth which comes to the Theatre Royal, Bath, next Monday.
A DARK psychological thriller featuring top television stars will be on stage at the town’s theatre this week.
Sleuth, one of the greatest ever stage thrillers, is being performed at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking until Saturday.
The play, written by Anthony Shaffer, promises to baffle even the most proficient sleuth so budding Miss Marples and Poirots should grab their magnifying glasses and book their seats.
Casualty favourite Simon MacCorkindale is returning to the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, appearing alongside ex-Robin Hood star Michael Praed in a new production of Sleuth. We take a look at the ever-popular touring show…
Simon MacCorkindale is back at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre for the second time in just over a year.
The popular actor, who’s nowadays best recognised for his portrayal of Harry Harper in the BBC TV drama series Casualty, is returning to the Midlands to star as Andrew Wyke in a new touring production of Anthony Shaffer’s Sleuth. He will be joined by another familiar television face – Michael Praed, a onetime Robin Hood and Dynasty star. Sleuth tells the story of Andrew Wyke’s devious attempt to gain revenge on his wife’s lover, Milo Tindle. Wyke cajoles Tindle into burgling his property, promising him the money, but in reality plans to kill the younger man and claim to police that he thought he was a prowler.
Bring on local hero Michael Praed and Casualty’s Simon MacCorkindale as Milo Tindle and Andrew Wyke respectively to act out this enthralling verbal tennis match, and savour an exhibition of champions.
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.
Busy Simon MacCorkindale chats to Viv Hardwick about leaving BBC1 ‘s Casualty, taking on a stage tour and finding time to breed expensive Arabian horses
YES sighs Simon MacCorkindale with mock irony, “I have gone down in history as the man who sacked Charlie Fairhead in Casualty.” The plot of the Christmas episode of the BBC1 drama made the right kind of headlines for the programme as actor Derek Thompson became the last member of the original cast to leave after 21 years.
MacCorkindale (known for his recent role in Casualty and former star of Manimal) delivers a commanding performance as Andrew Wyke who is complex and teasing.
ACTOR Simon MacCorkindale loves nothing more than a nail-bitingly good, edge-of-the-seat thriller, so he’s absolutely buzzing with enthusiasm ahead of his latest play, Sleuth, which opens in Windsor later this month.
First written by Anthony Shaffer, the Tony Award-winning play revolves around Simon’s character, Andrew Wyke, an immensely successful mystery writer, who is fascinated by psychological games and game-playing.
He lures his wife’s lover, Milo Tindle (played by Michael Praed), to his countryside manor house, where he subjects him to a tangled web of intrigue and manipulation. But ultimately nothing turns out quite as it seems.
Simon MacCorkindale is perhaps best recognized over the last few years as Harry Harper, Consultant in Emergency Medicine, in the BBC’s most popular and enduring drama series Casualty. Following his starring role in the successful 2007 tour of Agatha Christie’s Unexpected Guest, he now returns to the stage in Sleuth.
