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Post by Dame Bouncy Castle on Mar 11, 2019 19:28:00 GMT
ITV has locked down the core cast for The Singapore Grip.
Luke Treadaway (Ordeal By Innocence), David Morrissey (The Walking Dead), Jane Horrocks (Trollied), Colm Meaney (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Charles Dance OBE (Game Of Thrones), Elizabeth Tan (Coronation Street) and Georgia Blizzard (Thor: Ragnarok) have been set as the leads in the J.G. Farrell adaptation.
The Singapore Grip is set in Singapore in 1941, and follows Walter Blackett (David Morrissey), who is head of British Singapore’s oldest and most powerful firm alongside his business partner Webb (Charles Dance). With Webb’s health failing, Walter needs to ensure the future of their firm is secure. He decides Webb’s son Matthew (Luke Treadaway) is the perfect match for his spoilt daughter Joan (Georgia Blizzard).
Matthew’s idealism leaves Walter increasingly suspicious as Matthew himself falls under the spell of Vera Chiang (Elizabeth Tan), a mysterious Chinese refugee. Jane Horrocks plays Sylvia Blackett, Walter’s wife; while Colm Meaney plays Major Brendan Archer. Rounding out the cast is Luke Newberry (In The Flesh) as Walter’s son Monty, Bart Edwards (UnREAL) as Captain James Ehrendorf and Christoph Guybert (Falco) as Dupigny.
The Singapore Grip is based on J.G. Farrell’s novel of the same name that was first published in 1978 as the final entry in his Empire trilogy of novels.
“For me, J.G. Farrell and Christopher Hampton is the absolute dream team – two of the finest writers this country has ever produced. Forty years after it was first written, bringing The Singapore Grip to the screen is a passion project for all of us”, said executive producer Damien Timmer. “It’s an exceptionally well-crafted novel which has been adapted with unique flair and mischief by Christopher. It’s a privilege to be making this for ITV, and we hope this hugely entertaining and exotic saga will be a memorable treat for the audience.”
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Post by Dame Bouncy Castle on Sept 4, 2020 16:13:03 GMT
Sunday September 13th at 9pm.
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Post by yankee on Sept 4, 2020 18:31:53 GMT
Cool name. Sounds like a signature move for a professional wrestler.  |
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Post by Dame Bouncy Castle on Sept 4, 2020 18:59:46 GMT
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Post by profbooboo on Sept 4, 2020 19:38:48 GMT
Nah, it sounds like what it is. Sexual! ...I might be worried if I saw the Singapore Grip at the next Royal Rumble though! 😨 Lol
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Post by vicky on Sept 14, 2020 16:11:22 GMT
I enjoyed the first episode: it definitely has possibilities. What an awful family the Blacketts are! My dad was in Singapore for three years after the war with the army, stationed in notorious Changi. We were originally supposed to join him but terrorist activity meant families had to stay in the UK. I wish I had had that childhood experience: he told me lots about Singapore and I have many photos that he took. I also had a great uncle who was taught in Malaya and married in Singapore Cathedral before the war so this is of great interest to me.
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Post by geometryman on Sept 14, 2020 17:00:26 GMT
I'm enjoying it, and my father was posted to Singapore too - but in 1941, so he was captured by the Japanese when it fell, and spent the rest of the war being put to work on the infamous "Bridge on the River Kwai" railway. He and I didn't meet until I was 4 years old, and he was lucky to survive at all. Before that he really liked Singapore and had plans to become a rubber planter - in view of the post-war terrorist activity you mention it's probably a good thing he was prevented from doing that!
Looking forward to episode 2.
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Post by vicky on Sept 14, 2020 18:28:17 GMT
An extraneous word crept in there! It should read "who taught in Malaya".
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Post by sootycat on Sept 15, 2020 11:04:59 GMT
I can't make my mind up over this, it seems to jump about a lot. I am also confused by the Chinese woman who seems to be in nearly every scene.
That said..I shall still watch it.
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Post by LoopyLobes on Sept 17, 2020 9:18:02 GMT
One I think I should catch up on. Interesting to see you others here with Singapore connections. My Dad was in the Army for 23 years and I was born in Singapore. I was 3 when we left there, but I still have vivid memories of the place and I would love to go back, though it's changed a lot. Sadly my Dad now gone, but Mum was talking about us moving house 3 times while we were there because of dangerous situations. She has fond memories too. My ex-husband's nephew now lives and works there. Sadly I am no longer in contact with him (since ex b*ggered off all his family have blanked out sons and me as if we were the bad ones).
So yes. I will catch up on this programme.
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Post by marion on Sept 20, 2020 8:36:33 GMT
I really didnt think much to this because I thought some of the acting (mainly Joan) was appalling. I dont think ITV do this type of period drama very well. It reminded me of those Indian ones, with Julie Walters running a club in the foothills whilst Dot from LOD lusted after a local woman, and the other where the cook from Downton played the mother who brought a suitable bride to India for her son who unfortunately had another woman. I gave up on both of those. This one seemed pretty stilted, as if people were to talking over each other's shoulders. I dont know why on earth David Morrissey took his part as I think he is miscast. (i saw him as Mark Antony in Julius Caesar and he was brilliant; he should do better than this). The character seems to have an odd relationship for the time with his daughter, more or less do what you like sexually but keep it on the QT.
I shall watch one more episode and decide whether to stick with it. It might get better or be a good laugh.
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Post by geometryman on Sept 20, 2020 10:11:17 GMT
It reminds me of the Julie Walters series (Indian Summers) too, the same bright sunlight and colours (and some of the same filming locations, Penang), but I thought the Lesley Nicol one (Beecham House) had a different feel to it. I enjoyed both of those two as well though, and was disappointed when they got cancelled.
David Morrissey's character jars a little with me also, although I haven't been that enthusiastic about his acting in general anyway. I like him best as a Roman general in Sky's 'Britannia'.
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Post by Gargleblaster on Sept 20, 2020 21:29:50 GMT
I have to agree that "Joan's" acting is pretty wooden. The scene between Joan and Vera squabbligg over Matthew was embarrassing. Actually I am wondering why I am looking at this drama populated by some pretty horrible people. Did most colonials act like that?
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Post by beverley61 on Sept 21, 2020 11:22:38 GMT
It would be hard to say most colonials acted this way. Sufficient of them must have because dramas tend to portray them this way. That said, the Dutch/Belgian colonials received much less help from the locals during WW2 (a documentary I watched sometime - possibly around the time Tenko { I think they had a Dutch character??} was on, that looked at the way different nationalities were perceived). The Dutch were not popular and of course they went back and fought for their land in these countries after the war and were themselves accused of genocide.
We worry about our reputations being tarnished but the Dutch have done a good job of playing at being a benign force since the war. During it they were most successful country at rounding up Jews and handing them over to Germans. By far and away more successful than any other country in Europe, also one of the slowest to get a resistance movement going and after the war they had to be forced by the other Allied powers to bring people back from the camps, so they used an old German prison to put them in whilst they encouraged them to leave the country.
Of course up until this year the Belgians just didn't talk about colonialism at all.
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Post by beverley61 on Sept 28, 2020 11:18:23 GMT
Well for my sins and for some kind of absolution I watched this again. It is completely dire. I appreciate it is written by someone who wanted to highlight how terrible British Colonialism was and had an axe to grind, but the script and cast are just dreadful. I can only assume they have cut chunks from the story line and watered down a lot of the what was happening.
Dreadful. I don't actually like anyone, not even the locals.
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Anymore to come?
