Knight in Sherlock armour
Sir Ian McKellen, one of our most beloved actors, will next be seen breathing life into one of literature’s most enduring detectives, Sherlock Holmes. It seems an appropriate match, but it’s a crowded market, filled with memorable reincarnations from Benedict Cumberbatch, Robert Downey Jr, Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett. I ask him how his version will differ.
‘The take of this film is that he wasn’t fiction, he was a real man, and he wasn’t really like the Sherlock Holmes that Dr Watson portrays in the short stories and novels,’ explains the 76-year-old actor.
‘That was the intriguing part of it, that although Sherlock Holmes is a part many actors have successfully played and are still doing, this was, at least, not a script that any of them had done before. And part of the newness is this Sherlock Holmes is very old.’
Set in 1947, McKellen’s Holmes is 93 years of age for much of the film, with occasional 30-year flashbacks, and living in relative anonymity in the Sussex countryside, with his housekeeper and her young son, Roger. Irked with the misrepresentation of him in Watson’s novels, Holmes diverts his attention to an unsolved case, and is frustrated when his memory falters and he can’t remember key details relating to it.
‘At my age, I’m inevitably interested in what it’s like to be an old man, surviving your friends, trying to make new ones and trying to understand a sometimes alien world,’ says McKellen, who, when we meet, is stylishly dressed in a leather jacket and patterned scarf.
‘It’s not a fantasy world that he lives in, but a very real world.’
Although the actor, who was born in Burnley and brought up in Wigan, empathises with his character, memory loss isn’t something that concerns him. ‘I don’t worry on my own behalf about decline, because it’s not really happened yet,’ he says. ‘But I do with friends and people my age and a bit older. I see what happens, and mortality’s ever present, of course. It’s no fun seeing an elderly relative decline and change.’
Now in his seventh decade, McKellen’s commanding performances in The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit films are just as celebrated as his long stage career and the rare but highly praised comedic turns in Extras. And, for a brief but brilliant spell in Coronation Street as con artist Mel Hutchwright.
But, growing up in the 1940s, cinema visits were ‘occasional’ and ‘there was no television’ to watch. ‘I didn’t go to the ABC Minors [cinema clubs] all the other kids went to on a Saturday morning,’ he says. ‘I didn’t go to see films relentlessly, week in, week out, and collect a whole bank of memories of films that other people have now forgotten. I’m not one of those film buffs!’
However, after studying at Cambridge he honed his craft at regional theatres. ‘When I started out, you couldn’t act unless you were a member of the union Equity,’ he says, describing himself as a ‘slogger’.
‘Before you could get your full card, you had to be a provisional [actor] and do 44 weeks of work – not continuous work – but 44 weeks of work, before you appeared in the West End or in a film or on television. So for the first 44 weeks of your career, you were not doing television, you were learning how to act in front of an audience.’
He is currently starring alongside his fellow knight, Sir Derek Jacobi and the actress Frances de la Tour in ITV ’s Vicious – a comedy about an older gay couple who work as actors. Although the Equity rules have changed, McKellen commends the new generation of actors, praising both his younger colleagues on Vicious and his Mr Holmes co-star, young British actor Milo Parker (who plays Roger) for their talents.
‘Milo was full of the esprit of a young person,’ he says. ‘He had no fear of the camera or of doing exactly what the director wanted when required.’
As for his character in Vicious, he obviously has huge fun and his character mirrors his own life in as much as he is living openly as a gay man. He has been known as a tireless campaigner for gay rights for decades and was therefore pleased with the recent vote to approve same-sex marriage in the Republic of Ireland and hopes that Northern Ireland will eventually follow suit.
As one of the founding members of Stonewall UK, the charity that campaigns for greater equality and acceptance for lesbian and gay people, McKellen will be embarking on a nationwide school tour in the autumn to help tackle homophobic bullying among young people. ‘Once a person recognises that differences are to be treasured and variety is the spice of life, the differences between people are not frightening, and bullying a minority becomes utterly inappropriate.’ He then adds, ‘I am positive about the future.’
Mr Holmes is on general release.
‘The take of this film is that he wasn’t fiction, he was a real man, and he wasn’t really like the Sherlock Holmes that Dr Watson portrays in the short stories and novels,’ explains the 76-year-old actor.
‘That was the intriguing part of it, that although Sherlock Holmes is a part many actors have successfully played and are still doing, this was, at least, not a script that any of them had done before. And part of the newness is this Sherlock Holmes is very old.’
Set in 1947, McKellen’s Holmes is 93 years of age for much of the film, with occasional 30-year flashbacks, and living in relative anonymity in the Sussex countryside, with his housekeeper and her young son, Roger. Irked with the misrepresentation of him in Watson’s novels, Holmes diverts his attention to an unsolved case, and is frustrated when his memory falters and he can’t remember key details relating to it.
‘At my age, I’m inevitably interested in what it’s like to be an old man, surviving your friends, trying to make new ones and trying to understand a sometimes alien world,’ says McKellen, who, when we meet, is stylishly dressed in a leather jacket and patterned scarf.
‘It’s not a fantasy world that he lives in, but a very real world.’
Although the actor, who was born in Burnley and brought up in Wigan, empathises with his character, memory loss isn’t something that concerns him. ‘I don’t worry on my own behalf about decline, because it’s not really happened yet,’ he says. ‘But I do with friends and people my age and a bit older. I see what happens, and mortality’s ever present, of course. It’s no fun seeing an elderly relative decline and change.’
Now in his seventh decade, McKellen’s commanding performances in The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit films are just as celebrated as his long stage career and the rare but highly praised comedic turns in Extras. And, for a brief but brilliant spell in Coronation Street as con artist Mel Hutchwright.
But, growing up in the 1940s, cinema visits were ‘occasional’ and ‘there was no television’ to watch. ‘I didn’t go to the ABC Minors [cinema clubs] all the other kids went to on a Saturday morning,’ he says. ‘I didn’t go to see films relentlessly, week in, week out, and collect a whole bank of memories of films that other people have now forgotten. I’m not one of those film buffs!’
However, after studying at Cambridge he honed his craft at regional theatres. ‘When I started out, you couldn’t act unless you were a member of the union Equity,’ he says, describing himself as a ‘slogger’.
‘Before you could get your full card, you had to be a provisional [actor] and do 44 weeks of work – not continuous work – but 44 weeks of work, before you appeared in the West End or in a film or on television. So for the first 44 weeks of your career, you were not doing television, you were learning how to act in front of an audience.’
He is currently starring alongside his fellow knight, Sir Derek Jacobi and the actress Frances de la Tour in ITV ’s Vicious – a comedy about an older gay couple who work as actors. Although the Equity rules have changed, McKellen commends the new generation of actors, praising both his younger colleagues on Vicious and his Mr Holmes co-star, young British actor Milo Parker (who plays Roger) for their talents.
‘Milo was full of the esprit of a young person,’ he says. ‘He had no fear of the camera or of doing exactly what the director wanted when required.’
As for his character in Vicious, he obviously has huge fun and his character mirrors his own life in as much as he is living openly as a gay man. He has been known as a tireless campaigner for gay rights for decades and was therefore pleased with the recent vote to approve same-sex marriage in the Republic of Ireland and hopes that Northern Ireland will eventually follow suit.
As one of the founding members of Stonewall UK, the charity that campaigns for greater equality and acceptance for lesbian and gay people, McKellen will be embarking on a nationwide school tour in the autumn to help tackle homophobic bullying among young people. ‘Once a person recognises that differences are to be treasured and variety is the spice of life, the differences between people are not frightening, and bullying a minority becomes utterly inappropriate.’ He then adds, ‘I am positive about the future.’
Mr Holmes is on general release.