Isn't it funny how one's old life comes up unexpectedly at times? I found out last night that BBC4 have scheduled a whole M.R. James Christmas Ghost Stories evening for Christmas Eve this year. Amongst the line up, and seeing in Christmas Day itself at midnight, are two of the four half-hour Christopher Lee's Ghost Stories for Christmas episodes, in which I appeared back in 2001. Lee played M.R. James himself, reading his stories to our select group of his Cambridge Students.
We filmed it at a stately home near Coventry in the spring of 2001. I recall being massively busy at the time, in the way that acting jobs sometimes dovetail nicely, although I was living very much hand-to-mouth. When this TV role came up I was already due to be in the area anyway, rehearsing for a two-handed T.I.E. tour with the Onatti Theatre Co. out of nearby Leamington Spa. I was also rehearsing a fringe production of Hamlet at The Crescent Theatre in Birmingham (in which I played Guildenstern). At weekends I was driving back to London to perform as Michael & Smee in Peter Pan at the Colour House Theatre in Colliers Wood. Makes my eyes water now to think about it!
I also recall that it was a very cold spring that year, and the oil central heating system in my digs had broken down (with no apparent plans to fix it anytime soon). The lovely couple with whom I was staying had a Dalmatian who was in season, and was allowed to rummage around and pleasure himself on everything. I learned very quickly to stay on the move. I was really only there to sleep and eat the odd meal, thanks to my hectic schedule.
As for the man himself, Christopher Lee. Wow, what an honour to share a set with him. I remember when he walked into the green room for the first time; he was incredibly tall, and his amazing voice just filled the entire room with no effort at all. And he smoked these enormous cigars!
Naturally, we were all very much in awe of this screen legend, but he was lovely, and very generous with his time. We would eat together in the green room, with him sitting quietly at his own table, but slowly as a group we tried to open up and offer him opportunities to join in our conversations if he wanted to, otherwise we just politely left him to himself. We certainly were wary of discussing any of Lee's work, but as it turned out Ian Fleming and James Bond was the clincher. It's possible that the conversation was nudged that way specially (I don't recall now, but I certainly wouldn't have been one to push our luck!), but once we started on that topic Christopher Lee willingly opened up to us about being Fleming's cousin and playing Scaramanga, and how he should have played Dr No if they'd remained faithful to the description in the book (Fleming wanted this, we were told).
I'll admit it felt as if Lee was on something of a renaissance at the time, after being in several high-profile projects of late. He was clearly embittered about not being taken more seriously as an actor by the Establishment, and listed the volume and variety of work he'd done over the years - which was truly varied and prodigious, it must be said. He told us how much he'd hated filming Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones ('hours and hours of discomfort stuck out in the desert', he said). He talked of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast, in which he had recently appeared for the BBC. He spoke at most length, though, of Tolkien, Middle Earth and The Lord of The Rings ('the greatest fantasy ever written', he said) which he had just been filming out in New Zealand.
As is often the way with old pros when given a captive audience, once the floodgates were open he was off, talking to us (at us?) at length - seemingly authoritatively - on any subject. Pertinent to the job in hand, Lee recalled his own time at Cambridge and how he'd met M.R. James as provost there. He also spoke of his genealogy, and how, if he hadn't been an actor, he'd have been an Ambassador in the Diplomatic Corps, as he had the right contacts and a natural affinity for languages. One can't deny that whatever he'd ended up as, Christopher Lee would have been very striking.
I particularly recall a conversation about an 1818 first edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or a Modern Prometheus, which he'd found in his bedroom (he was staying there at the stately home). Aside from being impressed that it was there, he was surprised that it had 'by Mrs Shelley' scribbled on the flyleaf but otherwise no indication of the author's identity. As I was undertaking a Masters Degree in English Literature with the Open University at the time I was able to advise him that it was standard practice until much later for the author to conceal their identity on first editions, to see how well the book was received before they would lay claim to it - and more so if the author was female. Nice to know I imparted a little knowledge back to the great man on that occasion.
The filming itself was largely trouble-free, although I do recall a crane shot on one day, from outside the window looking in. Eleanor, the director, asked Lee to talk to us as if he was relaying one of James' stories while the camera filmed from outside - possibly through heavy rain, as it wasn't necessary to match any actual dialogue to the footage. Anyway, this went on for a good fifteen minutes or so, with Lee improvising to us, and at the end he had a huge strop at the production crew, told us that was no way to treat actors, and demanded a break.
Anyway, I'm surprised that I recall as much about the job, and him, as I do, but I guess it seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime experience at the time.
Three of the four episodes have been released on DVD on the BFI 6-disc box set Ghost Stories For Christmas - available from Amazon on the link below. It's a sumptuous set of archive BBC Christmas ghost story dramatizations and readings from the 1970s onwards. Unfortunately the one episode of Christopher Lee's Ghost Stories for Christmas that hasn't been released commercially is the one which features me more heavily, in some nice cutaways by the window. Ho hum...
Anyway, watch it if you can, and buy it if you like, but either way I hope you enjoy it, and watch out for the beak-nosed student who looks both ways outside the chapel in the opening credits!
