Martin Shaw biography
Sep. 2nd, 2006 01:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kiwisueI've just finished Martin Shaw's biography by Stafford Hildred and Tim Ewbank. It isn't a demanding read; it took me about 4 hours to get through it. At the end I felt as though I'd learned a little more about him, but at the same time more than a bit annoyed - despite not having huge expectations that it would "reveal all", as they say :-).
There are 46 photos, all very nice; many were familiar but a decent number were ones I hadn't seen before. The Knitted Cap of Doom made an appearance! One of Martin with his second wife and for once she looks very nice - no big hair or stunned-mullet expression. The "Ladder of Swords" shots are interesting because he's wearing (or almost wearing *g*) the costume and has the hair from the latter half of the film, but he's doing stuff with Daley the bear who appears in the first part.
The most interesting bits were (in no particular order) the sections on: filming "Macbeth; filming "Last Place on Earth"; doing "Are you Lonesome Tonight" on stage; and a little bit more information about Martin's days as a young actor at LAMDA.
I can believe that publisher pressure resulted in the book going to print too early. It has an unfinished feel - a final edit would not have gone astray. The book doesn't hang together as a whole - it's as though they wrote the chapters as stand-alones, maybe intending to go back & integrate them later. The narrative of events in some sections was confusing. There were whole paragraphs that were repeated in different places, in content if not word for word.
At one point, Vicki Kimm was referred to as Martin's third wife in a section dealing with 1991! Sloppy writing, a decent editor should have picked this up. And this description in The Professionals chapter, "The final episode was eventually screened on 6 February 1983 and finished with an explosive collision between an inflatable dinghy carrying Bodie and Doyle and the motorboat they were chasing" was just plain wrong! For one thing, the dinghy scene was in Spy Probe which was the last episode produced, not aired; and for another, they did NOT collide with the other boat! Sloppy background research.
Now and then I got the feeling that the authors were trying to build a picture of Shaw the (contradictory) man, rather than simply plodding through a chronicle of his history and achievements. At those times my appreciation of the book lifted considerably. Unfortunately there weren't anywhere near enough moments like this.
later I also should mention the section about "The Chief", because he's quoted talking about spending time with Peter Ryan, who was Chief Constable in Norfolk at the time and later had the job of Police Commissioner in NSW for a few years (but ran foul of Labour Party politics, at least IMO about what happened).
There are 46 photos, all very nice; many were familiar but a decent number were ones I hadn't seen before. The Knitted Cap of Doom made an appearance! One of Martin with his second wife and for once she looks very nice - no big hair or stunned-mullet expression. The "Ladder of Swords" shots are interesting because he's wearing (or almost wearing *g*) the costume and has the hair from the latter half of the film, but he's doing stuff with Daley the bear who appears in the first part.
The most interesting bits were (in no particular order) the sections on: filming "Macbeth; filming "Last Place on Earth"; doing "Are you Lonesome Tonight" on stage; and a little bit more information about Martin's days as a young actor at LAMDA.
I can believe that publisher pressure resulted in the book going to print too early. It has an unfinished feel - a final edit would not have gone astray. The book doesn't hang together as a whole - it's as though they wrote the chapters as stand-alones, maybe intending to go back & integrate them later. The narrative of events in some sections was confusing. There were whole paragraphs that were repeated in different places, in content if not word for word.
At one point, Vicki Kimm was referred to as Martin's third wife in a section dealing with 1991! Sloppy writing, a decent editor should have picked this up. And this description in The Professionals chapter, "The final episode was eventually screened on 6 February 1983 and finished with an explosive collision between an inflatable dinghy carrying Bodie and Doyle and the motorboat they were chasing" was just plain wrong! For one thing, the dinghy scene was in Spy Probe which was the last episode produced, not aired; and for another, they did NOT collide with the other boat! Sloppy background research.
Now and then I got the feeling that the authors were trying to build a picture of Shaw the (contradictory) man, rather than simply plodding through a chronicle of his history and achievements. At those times my appreciation of the book lifted considerably. Unfortunately there weren't anywhere near enough moments like this.
later I also should mention the section about "The Chief", because he's quoted talking about spending time with Peter Ryan, who was Chief Constable in Norfolk at the time and later had the job of Police Commissioner in NSW for a few years (but ran foul of Labour Party politics, at least IMO about what happened).
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 03:26 pm (UTC)With regard to the book being published too early - well, it seems that you're spot on there. As those of us who pre-ordered the book know, it was originally due for publication at the end of September. I know for a fact that Dave Matthews (he of the Pros website fame) was fully expecting to be interviewed by the authors (he was literally gobsmacked when I told him that the book was already available) and he'd also been assured that an interview with Martin had been lined up too.
So, it seems that this biography could have been so much more than it turned out to be, which is a great shame really.
Wonder how long we'll have to wait now for Lew's autobiography? ;-)
no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 03:35 pm (UTC)Still worth a read for the dedicated Martin fan :-) I'll be interested to hear what you think once you've read it.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 03:35 pm (UTC)(Any chance you might post the review to Pros-Lit?)
no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 04:06 pm (UTC)Since you asked nicely, yes ma'am. *g*
I was most interested in the non-Professionals stuff, since I didn't think I'd get any burning questions answered (like "did Lew really put whisky in your glass in ??that episode I can't remember right now??"). The ones I mentioned in my post were definitely the better bits, although still a bit patchwork.
I did like this snippet from the "Macbeth" chapter where he says he learned to ride properly: 'I thought I could ride already, having taught myself. But the ex-Indian army officer who was my riding instructor for Macbeth just took one look at me and said: "Right, no stirrups, - just the bridle. A rising trot."'
I swear my adductor muscles started to ache at that precise moment (yup, ex-Pony Club girl here).
no subject
Date: 2006-09-02 07:02 pm (UTC)It does seem a pity this book wasn't done very well, when it seems like a little more time and effort could've improved it immensely. But I doubt very much it'll be the last bio on MS, and perhaps this one's shoddiness could in fact act as a spur to somebody to do a better job of it, meaning a second one might appear sooner than it would otherwise.
/silver-lining pondering!
no subject
Date: 2006-09-02 02:56 am (UTC)Hmm. If I look for this in Hurstville today, will I be likely to find it, do you think?
no subject
Date: 2006-09-02 03:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-02 05:27 am (UTC)Uh huh.
*g*
*shrug* Never mind.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-03 05:04 am (UTC)I checked A&R's online store - they have it for $39.95 but it's out of stock & they are back-ordering. Sounds like the Hurstville staff were a bit lazy! Waah - even tho' I don't live there any more, I still miss Dragon Books!