Tim Frances: Ongoing News and what's to come

Watch this space for confirmed info and more updated news of what I am up to

My Show-Reel is now here to view and is available for members to view at Spotlight- and I have voice samples too now at www.timfrances.voice123.com
For complete theatre reviews, go to Reviews - Much more information below: read on

	2011 Theatre	August-October - After months dogged by illness and injury, I was delighted to go to West Yorkshire Playhouse to play Kent to Tim Pigott-Smith's King Lear, directed by Ian Brown. "Tim Frances plays the loyal thug Kent with brooding menace and energy." The Independent. view our rehearsal photos here / view our production photos here
	2011 Theatre	July 2011 - my first time in The Globe Theatre's ongoing Read Not Dead series of Elizabethan & Jacobean revivals as rehearsed readings, directed by James Wallace - playing Herod in The Tragedy of Herod & Antipater, a rousing, intense study of the corruption of power. Just goes to show these plays may not be masterpieces but they deserve dusting off and putting on their feet after so long.
	2010-2011 Theatre	November 2010-January 2011 I was Captain Hook in Peter Pan for Qdos Entertainment at The Cliffs Pavilion Southend - with Bradley Walsh as Smee and directed by Bob Thomson. "Tim Frances is a commanding and very funny Captain Hook" The Stage
	2010 Theatre	May-September at Chichester Festival & Liverpool Everyman Theatres in The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, adapted by Howard Brenton and directed by Christopher Morahan. I played devious boss, Mayor Sweater and struggling worker & Socialist convert, Fred Harlow. Robert Tressell’s classic novel brings to life the tragic-comedy of a group of working men and their families as they struggle for survival on the underside of Edwardian England. My second outing with the great Howard B.
	2010 Theatre	March-April with Attic Theatre at The Arcola Theatre London, playing Adolf Hitler in 1936, a new play by Tom McNab directed by Jenny Lee. A thrilling take on the events that led to the Olympics in Berlin in 1936. In 1933 Hitler's position in Germany was precarious: hosting the Games would provide valuable propaganda for the Nazis and strengthen his hold on power. Hitler's treatment of Jewish athletes was clearly unacceptable. Should there be a boycott - would it destroy the Olympic movement, who would gain? It all rested on a few influential men and a battle of ethics versus greed. "Tim Frances' Hitler is fascinating" Time Out
	2010 Theatre	Dracula - in a new version by Lars Saabye Christensen, is being given a rehearsed reading at The Jermyn Street Theatre. I am reading Renfield. This was a massive commercial and critical hit in Norway, and Katarina Gellin's translation is its first outing in the UK. It is a brand new take on the old tale and contains some genuine surprises - Not what you expect! Here's hoping it gets a further life here.
	2009-2010 Theatre	Christmas 2009 is twelve weeks long and features 86 performances - oh my! - of Oliver Twist at The Octagon Theatre Bolton. This is a new version by Deborah McAndrew, with music by Conrad Nelson, directed by Josette Bushell-Mingo. I played Bill Sikes and Mr Bumble, along with a lot of piano and double bass. Christmas playing one of the slimiest and one of the most disturbed characters in Dickens - marvellous! "... it is Tim Frances who most dominates proceedings ... as the arch hypocrite Mr Bumble ... and as Bill Sikes, the Reggie Kray of his day, terrifying London’s underworld" The Stage. "Most notably Tim Frances, as both Mr Bumble and the terrifying Bill Sykes" Manchester City Life.
	2009 Theatre	August/September: Delighting in my continuing relationship with Colin Blumenau (TMA Manager of the Year 2009 - Huzzah!) and the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds - now taking on Hogarthian proportions in one of Thomas Holcroft's final and finest works of political satire from the 1790s - He's Much To Blame. The caricatures of English 18th Century society stalk the stage, among them yours truly as the very eccentric and highly questionable Doctor Von Gostermans. "The best fun is had with a German physician, played beautifully by Tim Frances." Quentin Letts in The Daily Mail.
	2009 Television	June/July: filming the BBC's new drama, Land Girls - playing stern, by-the-book Group Captain Langford; directed by Paul Gibson - showing in September
	2009 Kalisher Trust	This Summer sees my third adventure for the Kalisher Trust Charity fund-raising event. Directed by Guy Retallack, we have performed at Middle Temple Hall the trial from Pickwick Papers, TV scripts by AP Herbert, & a cabaret of readings frivolous and tragic on The Law through the ages. Luminaries performing include Martin Shaw, Richard Griffiths, Timothy West & Prunella Scales, Jeremy Irons & Sinead Cusack, Patrick Malahide, Simon Russell Beale, Nick le Prevost, Maggie Steed and Daniel Hill. Photos appear on my Gallery page and you can read more on the Trust here.
	2009 Theatre	June/July: at RADA, for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art's Directors' Course. Keziah Serreau directs Woyzeck at the George Bernard Shaw Theatre, London. Students use professional actors for their final full show. I am playing the Captain, the Drum Major & the Showman
	2009 Film	At long long last, the weird and sinister saga of 3 Men In A Restaurant - then called Deadwood - and now officially That Deadwood Feeling - is complete. The movie is intact and in good health and is OUT ON DVD - Huzzah! An eight year story in itself, all told in DVD extras. Don't miss it - a black tale of charlatan movie producers. I am an actor, Max, who falls victim. Produced by The Electric Theatre Company, with Dexter Fletcher, Jack Davenport, Angus Deayton & a tour de force by David Soul and directed by Simon Ubsdell. Find it at Amazon / YouTube Promo / YouTube Trailer
	2009 Theatre	More Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds Restoring the Repertoire readings ... In May: Cato by Joseph Addison - my first goody for the Theatre Royal, playing the title role of Cato, the man who dared to stand up against the tyranny Julius Caesar. And in June: Thomas Holcroft's Duplicity, playing Sir Hornet, a bull-headed, matchmaking uncle. Both readings directed by Abigail Anderson. Plus readings from Shakespeare in How Does Your Garden Grow, Mr Shakespeare? - a fundraising event with Garden Historian, Caroline Holmes.
	2009 Television	February/March: reunited with director Nick Copus for the BBC's new adaptation of the sci-fi classic The Day of the Triffids, playing the narrow-minded Colonel defending London from the wrong enemy. Due for transmission on the August Bank Holiday weekend 2009.
	2009 Theatre	Back at the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds for their first season of plays for a long time. Giving my Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night (directed by Abigail Anderson) & Philip in Alan Ayckbourn's Relatively Speaking (directed by Colin Blumenau). "Tim Frances's Philip is a great bully of a businessman with lovely vague moments of indecision and funk..." East Anglian Daily Times. "...the true star is the middle-aged Philip, whose sarcasm and ability to imply more than he’s saying bring the whole play to life." Bury Free Press "Tim Frances presents a Sir Toby Belch with a hard edge as he clings on to the last remnants of fading gentility" Whatsonstage.com. "The odd sinister side from Frances makes it clear Sir Toby is ultimately a selfish drunken sot who has no qualms about making his friend look a fool, go bankrupt or get hurt." Basingstoke Gazette
	2009 Theatre	February: another Theatre Royal BSE Restoring the Repertoire reading, this time of A Trip to Bath by Francis Sheridan to be directed by Colin Blumenau
	2008 Theatre	December: Returning to the Theatre Royal BSE for Restoring the Repertoire, their ongoing series of rehearsed readings of 18th & 19th Century plays: The Times by Elizabeth Griffiths
	2008 Theatre	August to October: I am at the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, as Sir William Dorillon in Wives As They Were & Maids As They Are by Elizabeth Inchbald. Dangerous flirtation and reckless spending whirl a young woman towards disaster in Regency London full of predatory bachelors and jealous husbands. Authentic Georgian theatre first performed in 1797, directed by Colin Blumenau. "A superb performance comes from Tim Frances as Sir William around who the play revolves. Urbane, high-principled, occasionally touchingly tender, he runs the gamut" The Stage. "Tim Frances as Maria's colonialist backwoodsman of a father" Michael Billington in The Guardian.
	2008 Theatre	January to August, I am at the Royal National Theatre to do Howard Brenton's new play about Macmillan, Never So Good. Directed by Howard Davies and starring Jeremy Irons along with Anna Chancellor, Clive Francis, Anna Cartaret & Ian McNeice. I am play Macmillan's Catholic mentor, Ronald Knox.
	2008 Film	As yet, no news of Deadwood, a black tale of charlatan movie producers. I am the actor, Max, who falls victim. Starring Dexter Fletcher, Jack Davenport & David Soul, directed by Simon Ubsdell. Filmed in 2001, what has happened since to the film is a story in itself.
	2007 Theatre	Playing the Wizard of Osz and Professor Marvel in The Wizard of Oz at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh. Directed by Gill Robertson. Five-star reviews and packed houses - Merry Christmas!
	2007 Theatre	At the New Vic Theatre Stoke to play Jack Horsfall in The Glee Club by Richard Cameron, directed by Theresa Heskins. A moving and earthy celebration of the now lost world of miners and mining communities. "It's strongly acted ... and superlatively sung." The Guardian
	November 2006 TV	Showing BBC2 November 2006: Simon Schama's The Power of Art - The Death of Marat, directed by Clare Beavan. I played Danton ("Let the public see my head: it's well worth the trouble"), champion thunderer of the French Revolution. Glorious original thundering speeches rousing the people, unrecognisable make-up and another great wig!
	Summer 2006 Theatre	At Alan Ayckbourn's Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough doing 2 two-handed plays, to be directed by Tamara Harvey ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"). In The Prodigal Son by Anthony Fletcher, I play an ageing Bobby Fischer, once World Chess Champion, now fixing cable TV. Volatile, paranoid and irascible, he meets a young chess prodigy and his mind goes back to his lunatic battles with the Soviet hero Boris Spassky. And in Purvis by Nick Warburton, I am Mr Purvis, the new Church Health & Safety Officer, a bumbling innocent who proves a menace to life, limb and the Vicar's wife.
	September 2005 - April 2006 Theatre	A sell-out (virtually) hit: Bill Kenwright's production of Robert Bolt's classic A Man For All Seasons tours the UK from October, winding up at the Haymarket Theatre in London's West End from Christmas to April 2006. Starring Martin Shaw as Sir Thomas More, with Paul Shelley, Alison Fiske & Clive Carter, directed by Michael Rudman. I play Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. "Tim Frances' cold Cranmer" Sunday Telegraph. "Tim Frances plays [Cranmer] as an austere figure, viewing the decline of a sometime colleague with an air of resigned detachment and relative powerlessness." Church Times.
	July 2005 TV	Filming for the BBC: The Power of Art - The Death of Marat, Simon Schama's major new series telling the stories behind iconic paintings, directed by Clare Beavan. I am playing Danton ("Let the public see my head: it's well worth the trouble"), champion thunderer & darling of the French Revolution. One-time court painter David becomes the image consultant of the Reign of Terror, sanctifying the monster Marat in one of the great images of martyrdom and revolutionary spin.
	March - May 2005 Theatre	Back at Salisbury Playhouse for William (Shadowlands) Nicholson's elegantly sad Map of the Heart, with Mark McGann (my Inspector on the tour of "An Inspector Calls"), directed by Fiona Laird. After a "derailment on the train of life", post-breakdown Bernard tries to console his sister whose life is falling apart. Can we really take responsibility for another's happiness? "Judith Scott's Ruth & Tim Frances as brother Bernard ... are careful and detailed performances. They make a shared history" ReviewsGate.com
	December 2004 to February 2005 Theatre	Femme Fatale by Phil Wilmott - at The Warehouse Theatre Croydon. A new musical pastiche of Film Noir and '40s B-movies like The Fly. Private dicks, sultry women and serial-killing spider freaks. I am giving my Raymond Chandler, my slimeball Noir villain, and my archetypal Hollywood Nazi scientist. Directed by Ted Craig with music by Stefan Bednarczyk. "Tim Frances is superb as the fast-talking, ruthless Irwin and equally good as the henchman Manfred" The Stage. "an aura of evil" Croydon Advertiser. "Tim Frances has a great gravelly voice, perfect for hard-boiled narrating" The Independent on Sunday.
	2004	Rest in peace Sebastian Graham-Jones - a tremendous man, terrific director and superb company.
	September 2004 TV	Terrific working again with director Nick Copus - on the futuristic drugs thriller, What If Drugs Were Legal for the BBC. In 2017, most drugs are legal, supervised by Ofdrug, whose Commissioner I play. What would happen if... The opposed cultures of licensed and street drugs clash and a political scandal threatens in this dramatised discussion of the profit-mongering ramifications of legalisation. Starring Christopher Fulford and showing 12th January 2005.
	Autumn - Winter 2004 TV	Look out for Bad Girls (last in the series, 23rd August ITV1), My Dad's the Prime Minister (Sept BBC1) and Holby City (5th October BBC1). Later on, What If Drugs Were Legal (BBC December).
	August-September 2004 Theatre	After 18 months, a return to the theatre - Proving Mr Jennings will be at the Courtyard Theatre in London through September. Directed by Guy Retallack with Daniel Hill as Mr Jennings. Conducting the "war on terrorism" (how do you make war on a noun? - thank you Michael Moore), the government turns on its own revolting middle class. I am Colonel Loveday, the intelligence officer who is single-mindedly convinced the eponymous Jennings is a terrorist however much real life disagrees. "Tim Frances gives a virtuoso performance as the infuriatingly calm and patronising Colonel Loveday. Avoiding the temptation to over-labour laughs, he delivers the most absurd lines with a deadpan seriousness and conviction which accentuate the humour" - Theatreworld Magazine.
	July 2004 TV	Just been asked to reprise my funeral cock-up Vicar in Holby City for the BBC. Last time, a funeral; this time, a christening. Directed by Rob Evans. Currently scheduled for 5th October 2004 on BBC1.
	June 2004 TV	Filming the first episode of the new series of My Dad's the Prime Minister for the BBC playing a lippy photographer after that perfect pic of the PM (Robert Bathurst). Directed by Juliet May, produced by old pal Matthew Francis, and written by Ian Hislop & Nick Newman.
	April-June 2004 Theatre	A series of workshops for future projects - a new Soul musical directed by Clarke Peters; and for Bill Kenwright Ltd, a new musical from the team behind "Stepping Out" and a rehearsed reading of a new play by Trevor Baxter, "Appetite", both directed by Guy Retallack.
	April 2004 Radio	Just recorded She Fell Among Thieves for BBC Radio, from the novel by Dornford Yates, adapted by Micheline Wandor, & produced by Chris Wallis. A wonderful old-fashioned Buchan-esque British thriller where two very classy gentlemen save innocent young ladies and Empire alike from the evil clutches of Vanity Fair (Honor Blackman). Where honour, good manners and fair play count as much as a successful mission, where the spies drive a Rolls, and victory is celebrated over a decent Claret at the Club. In case you were wondering (as if), I am one of the classy chaps, the other played by Nicholas Boulton. Damn fine larks. Airs on BBC Radio 4: The Saturday Play - on 15th May 2004 at 2.30pm.
	March 2004 TV	Shooting Bad Girls for Shed Productions/ITV. Det Sgt Ledwell is a grumpy copper who has far better things to do than talk an escaped female con off a tall building. Shock therapy for my fear of heights. (Never got over that rope bridge in Jungle Book.) Directed by Jim Loach and showing on ITV1 late August as the last of the 2004 season. Click on the photo (right) for full size screen-captures (with Charlotte Lucas).
	December 2003 TV	The new series of the BBC's The Inspector Lynley Mysteries. I am Asst Commissioner Hillier, the new Guv'nor, resurrected from Elizabeth George's books - possibly the first charming & personable cop-show boss in the history of television. A lovely job, re-united with Sharon Small (The Nun, Greenwich Studio Theatre), and meeting Nat Parker for the first time since the National Youth Theatre in 1980. A joy being directed by Sebastian Graham-Jones. Airs on BBC1 in March 2004.
	September 2003 TV	Shooting Cromwell for the BBC, directed by Andrew Thompson & starring Jim Carter. The story of Cromwell's political & religious agonies and the compromises he had to make. I am playing John Lilburne, (founder of the Levellers, the first libertarians/socialists) religious moderate & political zealot: Cromwell's conscience, Tony Benn to his Tony Blair. Showing as part of the BBC's Charles II season and due to air on BBC1 in November 2003.
	March 2003 Film	Shooting Panther Walk, a short film written by Noah Charney, directed by Barney Powell and exec produced by Robert Powell. Four gangsters meet before an unknown hit, mulling over everything from gun size to The Tao of Pooh. I am playing Jugger - jaded, philosophical and tired: his heart is no longer in the game, he has no choice but to continue.
	January 2003	Fresh from the joys of Pantomime - Sleeping Beauty was one of The Observer's choices of the season. Holby City screens on January 14th.
	November 2002 to January 2003 Theatre	Sleeping Beauty at the Royal Theatre Northampton. I am giving my Lord Chancellor (aka Elsie ... LC, geddit?), running from the start of December to 18th January 2003. Under the new regime of Rupert Goold, directed by Simon Godwin. Larks a-plenty! Photo right shows idiot father and son - with Tom Edden.
	October 2002 TV	Holby CIty Episode entitled Me and My Gal, shooting for the BBC end of October for transmission 14th January 2003 on BBC1. I am playing a Vicar (who has no name, so I have christened him Father Malcolm) who whilst conducting a sombre funeral makes a terrible faux pas. Directed by Jim Doyle.
	June 2002 TV	The Bill UK Screening June 6th on ITV1. Directed by Susan Tully. See January 2002 below.
	March – April 2002 TV	East Enders (the Little Mo trial), I played Henry, the unemotional scientific passive-aggressive type on the jury, whose cool and cunning analysis helped bring a guilty verdict (and an eight stretch) for Little Mo. First showing in the UK on BBC1, 15th to 19th April. Directed by Dearbhla Walsh, later of Shameless fame.
	March 2002 TV	Scar Stories, The true story of a Wellington bomber crash in WW2 with yours truly as the pilot - apparently it was my fault! Working again with director Nick Copus. Shown in the UK on BBC1 in late March 2002.
	March 2002 TV	Doctors UK Screening March 27th on BBC1. Directed by Jon Boyce. See January 2002 below.
	January 2002 TV	Doctors, The Bill, filmed January 2002, episodes of Doctors for the BBC, (director Jon Boyce), playing a charmer of a college lecturer who harbours a guilty secret (and a dose), and The Bill (director Susan Tully) for Thames TV (ITV1), playing a bank manager in an armed hold-up. Watch this page for transmission dates.
	January 2002 TV	Lexx filmed May-June 2001 in Canada, directed by Carl Harvey for DZ4 Productions & Silver Light. The episode is called A Midsummer’s Nightmare, and I am playing Puck – in a very loose (in all senses of the word) pastiche of Shakespeare, where Puck is trying to arrange Oberon’s wedding to anybody except Titania, and preferably to Stanley Tweedle (Brian Downey). Worldwide broadcast Autumn/Winter 2001-2, (Sci-Fi Channel in USA). In UK, scheduled for Sci-Fi Channel on 24th January 2002, with a terrestrial screening to be confirmed on Channel 5 I hope at some point - so check back for an update.
	January 2002 TV	Search for BBC Worldwide, directed by Dirk Campbell. I am playing an Australian news anchor. Shot in July 2002, broadcast Feb-March 2002.
	December 2001 TV	Othello, Andrew Davies’ acclaimed modern take on the Shakespeare play, set around the post-MacPherson Report London Metropolitan Police, starring Christopher Eccleston, Eamonn Walker & Keeley Hawes and directed by Geoffrey Sax for London Weekend Television. Shown in the UK on ITV1, 23rd December 2001. Shot February 2001.
	November 2001 Film	Filming 3 Men In A Restaurant - now called Deadwood - a black tale of charlatan movie producers. I am an actor, Max, who falls victim. Produced by The Electric Theatre Company, with Dexter Fletcher, Jack Davenport, Angus Deayton & David Soul and directed by Simon Ubsdell. UK Cinema release is still something of a mystery, so please check back here for further information.
	Autumn 2001 TV	To Hell & Back for the BBC, playing a man who beats and abuses his wife, a true story told from the point of view of their little girl. Director Nick Copus. Shot in March 2001 and screened in the UK on BBC1 in Autumn 2002.
	January-June 2001 TV	Filming Othello, To Hell & Back and Lexx. See above.
	December 2000 Theatre	A very fond farewell to over a year playing Gerald Croft in An Inspector Calls, directed by Stephen Daldry & Julian Webber - 5 months touring the UK and 9 months at The Garrick Theatre in London's West End. But I have a little model phone box and my comedy shoes to remember it by. (With Bryan Murray, Marjorie Yates & Denis Lill.)
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