The Best British Actors are Hogwarts Professors

ABC Family has been showing a Harry Potter marathon on tv. This brings several things to mind, the first of which is that every. single. stinkin'. commercial. on ABC Family's Harry Potter Marathon is CHRISTMAS related. So irritating. Come on people -- not only is it not December yet, it's not even Thanksgiving. Have a little respect. And, seriously, how can you not get burned out on Christmas when you celebrate it for 6 solid weeks?


Secondly, and maybe more important for the post I'm about to write, is that while watching all these movies it is washing over me that pretty much every major British actor is a Hogwarts professor. I would bet that the Hogwarts professors collectively represent the most impressive assemblage of talent ever. Add in other miscellaneous grown-ups in the Harry Potter movies, and I'm sure of it.


Now, this is not a piece of insight that has gone unnoticed by others. So what can I add to the blogosphere on this point? You guessed it. I just really can't help myself when it comes to ranking things, so here I go with The very best Hogwarts professors as portrayed by the very best British actors.


1. Alan Rickman as Severus Snape. Not only is he amazingly funny and sexy and entertaining in this role, but he just really "gets" the character of Snape. Rickman has embodied the evilness and pain so thoroughly I can hardly remember the way I imagined this character in my mind before Rickman took it over. He is and will always be Snape.



2. Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn. Mesmerizing. I can't seem to tear my eyes from Slughorn anytime he is onscreen -- which is, unfortunately far too seldom. His performance is touching and funny, charming and vulnerable; its not even that he makes Slughorn likeable, but just so damned compelling. He makes me love Slughorn in a way I never thought I would.


3. Maggie Smith as Minerva McGonagal. She has it all. Great accent. Distance. Harshness masking a deep level of care. Brusk and brilliant, McGonagal has to be one of the best Harry Potter characters ever. And Smith is, as always, just flawless in her acting.

4. David Thewlis as Professor Lupin. As with Rickman/Snape, Thewlis inhabits this role in a very special way. He makes Lupin extremely appealing and sympathetic with a tremendous warm charm. I long for more of him in the movies -- but the character is unfortunately underutilized.



5.  Richard Harris as Dumbledore I. By far the better of the two Dumbledores, Harris has the lightness and wisdom down in this fleeting flitting sort of role. I don't think the physical requirements of Dumbledore are really possible for a human actor -- old and frail but light and sprightly, long and skinny, quick and sharp. Harris comes as close as you can get.

6. Emma Thompson as Sybill Trelawney. This is one of those rare cases when an actor makes the role better on screen than it ever was in the book. Emma Thompson is perfection as a sparkly, huge-eyed, nervous mystic. She is brilliant.





7. Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid. Coltrane's best contribution to Hagrid is his voice. I hear him every time I think of Hagrid or read Rowling's words. Coltrane has the innocent monster thing in droves. Hagrid is one of the best things about Harry Potter and seeing him brought to life so well is priceless.





8. Brendan Gleeson as Mad Eye Moody. Mad Eye is a very strange sort of fellow. Not exactly cool, not exactly likeable, definitely scary and hard to understand. Gleeson manages to bring all of that to the forefront and deal well with the duality of not even really being Mad Eye, but an impostor. His performance is funny and powerful. Excellent.

9. Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge. It is hard to even write the word "Umbridge" without a shudder. So much evil and cruelty packed into one tiny little sugarcoated body. Staunton is perfectly hateable.


 
10. Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart. Branagh's take on Lockhart was not what I was expecting; I had something totally different in mind when I read the book. His idea was better. Much better. Such smarmyness. Such glibness. So smooth and ridiculous. Exceptionally well done!

11. Michael Gambon as Dumbledore II. I am a big fan of Michael Gambon. Just not a big fan of him as Dumbledore. That said, his performances in these movies are wonderful. They just don't convey "Dumbledore" to me. Still, they do convey a very impressive wizard who I have actually come to like a great deal anyway (if that makes sense).


12. Warwick Davis as Filius Flitwick. The movie-makers did a strange thing to Warwick Davis & Flitwick -- they made him old; then they made him young. They even made him a choir director. Davis is exceptional because in all of these different iterations he is good! and enjoyable to watch.


13. Gemma Jones as Madam Pomfrey. Great actress! Pretty minimal role. Poppy never really gets to shine in the movies, though Gemma is so lovely and engaging, when she is around she always sparkles.




14. Zoe Wanamaker as Madam Hooch. Even these really small parts like Hooch and Sprout get great performances in the movies. Wanamaker is exactly how I pictured Madam Hooch. She embodies butch gym teacher -- I guess that exists even in the wizarding world.

15. Miriam Margolyes as Professor Sprout. And finally Professor Sprout. Not a whole lot for Margolyes to do; but glad she is here to round out the team.

MI-5's Lucas North, the Character that Pamela Ewing Dreamed.

 I have just finished watching the last episode of MI-5 (Spooks') Season 9 and I'm a bit ticked. (Please take care for the Spoilers that follow and - don't read if you haven't watched through Season 9).

I have no problem admitting that I'm often in over my head with some of the sophisticated and complex Spooks plots. Whenever one doesn't make sense, I always assume its me that can't figure it out and I really don't let it bother me. I have a rather healthy suspension of disbelief. But this time its not about me. This episode has huge plot-holes in it that are not my fault and due to nothing more complex than stretching a storyline too far.

Lucas North's (oh excuse me, John Bateman's) motivations and actions in this episode just don't and can't add up. While Vaughn was alive and blackmailing him, things made sense. The character-formerly-known-as-Lucas was walking a tightrope trying to keep things together --wishing to protect his job and reputation and trying to carve out a life with Maya. This is all fine. But after the threat of blackmail is gone (with the death of Vaughn) and after Harry knows (most of) the real story and Lucas knows his job and reputation are shot, his main motivation hinges on simply escaping somewhere with Maya.

Why in hell wouldn't Lucas have cut a deal with his own country rather than work with the Chinese to whom he has no particular allegiance and who are not providing him anything that others in power couldn't also provide? The Chinese entanglement was Vaughn's deal, not Lucas'; he is too smart to just keep working with them by default. Especially when all the spooks are offering to deal.  It doesn't make sense.

Once his last motivating factor, Maya, is dead, things become even more strange and strained. There is no reason why Lucas would become distraught to know that Albany wasn't a real threat. He was not invested in Albany and didn't even know what it was for much of the episode. His "mission" wasn't to deliver Albany to the Chinese. His mission was to get out of town. He could have been giving them chocolate. He didn't care. Why should he jump off a building when Albany turns out to be useless? It doesn't ring true.

Somebody defending the episode might say, well, he acted unpredictably because his mind was screwed up; he was confused; he wasn't acting out of rational motivations. Fair enough. But, while I think it makes sense for Lucas' options and strategy and even his state of mind to be messed up, there's no reason for his basic driving purpose as a character to be messed up.

And there is no reason for the writers to have changed everything about him that a viewer had the right to rely on. One of the best things about this show has always been its internal consistency with respect to character development. Rugs just don't go getting pulled out from under us. Here they are flying through the air.

...And, if he was so messed up, it just points to another plot flaw: there is no way, in that state of mind, he could have orchestrated (solo) all the sophisticated maneuvers he had going to get Albany from the spooks (the car pre-programmed with directions, the phone that calls only him, the suit of clothes for Harry to switch to, the scanner set-up, the IV drip for Ruth, and on and on). Its too much.

I'm not going to say that Season 9, Episode 8 isn't good TV. Its exciting and heart-thumping and heart-breaking and interesting. But it doesn't feel true to me. It has a flavor of Bobby Ewing showing up in the shower in Dallas rather than being dead. Yes, writers of fiction have wide license. If they want to all of a sudden make someone really alive after all!  they can do it. If they all of a sudden want to make someone really really bad after all!, then they can do that too. But there is no reason to have made Lucas so super duper ultra bad that he was willing to sell out his country for basically no reason... so really ultra bad that he was willing to kill a random stranger, let alone an attempt on a co-worker whom he cared about, trusted and respected. Not when he'd just spent years working his ass off as an agent dedicating his life to protecting his country and countrymen.

And I say all this as someone who is actually quite OK with some level -- a fair level -- of badness in Lucas. It makes sense. He is ambiguous. He has a strange flatness about him into which you can read a variety of things. So I don't mind the writers constructing a past for Lucas that torments him and causes him to become unstable. Its an interesting choice that enlivened this whole series, but by the last episode it was clear to me that they were straining to make it all work. They took a good idea to the wrong place and went too far.

By way of comparison, I enjoyed the way the departure of Tom was handled many many seasons ago . . . it was ever so slightly similar.  Devoted and caring agent just has one little bit more than he can take  and becomes rogue and unstable. There was a great ambiguous ending for him. I'm OK with rogue agents going a bit over the brink or being scarred by a difficult life. I mean, you don't generally go into this line of work if you are and have always been boring and squeaky clean.

The only thing that made the last episode of season 9 bearable was the phenomenal acting from Richard Armitage who almost managed to sell this ridiculous storyline. He reached deep and found a humanity for Lucas, despite these crazy plot twists. His scenes with Ruth, Harry and Maya are all powerful and touching. It was rich when he was advising Ruth to marry Harry. He has an incredible capacity to tap into Lucas' vulnerability.

I'm going to miss Lucas. And I don't see why they needed to blast him to bits before they ousted him. Even Connie got to redeem herself by disarming a nuclear bomb and saving millions of people before she was blasted away.

Spooks has always wooed me willingly along to wherever it wanted to go. And I've always been thrilled by the ride. But I feel jerked around by this ending to the Lucas story.

It might have been better if  Pamela Ewing had just dreamed it all, really.

"MI-5's Lusas North, the Character that Pamela Ewing Dreamed." LostinBritishTV

A Lot of People in America Don't Know MI-5 (Spooks). They Should.

I wish more people in America knew about MI-5 (Spooks). It is simply phenomenal. Some of the best TV I have ever seen. And from me that is really saying something because I hate dark, gritty, thrilling programs. If this is good enough to make me fall in love with it, I can imagine few who wouldn't.

What makes Spooks so good is the acting, the tension, the style of filming, and the writing. Among other things :) And for me, the best character in Spooks is London itself; it is shot lovingly in that city giving meaningful glimpses into the British government and way of life that I think would be especially fun for Americans since we don't otherwise see that. Of course it scares the hell out of me. And sometimes is very disturbing. But the acting and writing make the characters come fully to life and it can be appreciated at different levels. These factors make everything worth it.

And its actually pretty easy to come by. You can get it on Netflix or Blockbuster through the rental of dvds or online streaming. I actually watch it on dvds that I check out from my library and my husband tells me it is also on TV late at night.  Just look for it.  The only caveat in the "looking for it" plan, is that you need to know that in Britain it is called "Spooks," in America it is packaged as "MI-5." Also, good to know that in Britain the term "series" means what we call a "season." I mention all this, because, armed with info there is simply no excuse not to start enjoying this show today.

I suppose it should go without saying to wait till the little ones are in bed though. It is seriously intense, sometimes graphic, and sometimes contains nudity and sexual situations. I did let my 12 year old watch one episode with me because it was just so good and one of the more appropriate ones (more of a PG-13 than an R). In fact it is the episode that I would recommend to anyone interested in the show.  If you watch only one episode of this show, let it be Episode 8 of Season 7.

These are the best spies I know. They are just sooooo cool. In case you don't know, the characters you see in that episode are: Harry, their leader (the guy with the tie, you know what I mean if you watched the clip), Lucas (the very sexy dark haired guy who knew they were speaking Russian), and Ros and Connie the other two who are on the run and getting shot at. They are all good guys. Except that Connie (Gemma Jones, who most Americans would know most readily as Bridget Jones' mum) was just discovered to be a "mole" for the enemy. (That's spy talk for someone who has infiltrated your organization). Ros is my favorite character of all time, but you just get glimpses of her in this clip. Still you can see how awesome she is just by how she walks and holds her phone. You also briefly get to see Malcolm and Jo (the good guys assisting with cool high tech stuff at good guy headquarters -- we in the know call that "the grid").

This show continues on with a great chase and confrontation under the street of London in defunct subway lines. I won't say more.

British TV in general and Spooks in particular just has a talent for fully developing amazingly rich characters while simultaneously entertaining you with great plot lines. Add some incredibly talented actors and you just can't miss.

Great show.


A Lot of People in America Don't Know MI-5 (Spooks). They Should. LostinBritishTV