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Post by hollandazed on Feb 23, 2008 19:50:31 GMT -5
“The monster in the midst is Tom Hollander, as Leon, Elizabeth's agent, a brilliantly foul-mouthed wretch who screams abuse, and indeed just screams (even if it is to say good morning); a braying swirl of ego and mania. Hollander wrote a very funny piece in The Spectator about the agent upon whom he has based this grotesque (look it up at http://www.spectator.co.uk) and he is clearly having a ball, chewing, then chewing some more, any bit of scenery or passing cyclist.....Hollander's toxicity - like Ari's in Entourage - may well become the show-stealing reason to keep watching over the next two nights.” Freezing; Torchwood – Times Online “For one thing, there can rarely have been a more monstrously-hilarious sitcom character than bullying, amoral and oddly vulnerable Leon, shoutily declaimed by Tom Hollander. Leon is a showbiz agent who loathes his clients as heartily as he hypes their meagre talents.” Please don't give me nightmares, Kirsty – The Herald “His best friend is her agent, a coarse, crass but lovable Tom Hollander.” The last enemy was 1984 remade by M�decins Sans Frontières - Times Online "Even Elizabeth's preposterously amoral agent Leon, played with deadpan sincerity by Tom Hollander, won me over with his crass wheedling, his blaring forthrightness, his unwitting cruelty and infant depths of neediness." O brother, where art thou? - The Guardian Observer
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Post by beckettologist on Feb 23, 2008 22:35:41 GMT -5
As one who was privileged to see all three episodes I can tell you all that it was FANTASTIC. Tom is hilarious and the whole show is fresh, and fun. If you can find a way to see you must. I wish there was more but as PE and I discussed privately if they kept it going it would probably not be as good. Probably best this way...short and sweet. Less is more...but you can't help wanting more. What is the most amazing is the Tom manages to be appalling and loveable at the same time. I hope he gets some sort of TV award for this. Hugh and Elizabeth are great as well. They all play off each other in such a natural way and I am sure it is because they have all known each other forever.
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Post by Redwine on Feb 27, 2008 18:31:59 GMT -5
This article is really about the show itself, but certainly seems to indicate that Tom's character is the pivot around which all activity takes place.....
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Sunday Express February 24, 2008 Sunday U.K. 1st Edition Cool media satire that strikes at the A-list; Review TV - Freezing is a biting BBC comedy about showbusiness that dares to use the names of real celebrities. David Stephenson talks to the writer and director about what inspired their vicious humour by David Stephenson SECTION: FEATURES; 68 LENGTH: 1140 words THERE'S FINALLY a reason to use the BBC iPlayer - it's called Freezing, a biting and brilliant new satire that began life on BBC4, but returned last week to BBC2 for two further episodes. If you missed them, they are available to download on iPlayer. Freezing is in familiar territory. It's a comedy about the media industry and showbusiness, in much the same way that Lead Balloon, Moving Wallpaper and Extras have been. It features cameos from actors and other "players" such as Antony Head, Richard E Grant and director Stephen Frears, but where Freezing parts company with its fellow media satires is the sheer viciousness of the comedy. Celebrity names are dotted about the scripts like confetti. Sean Bean, Kate Beckinsale and Jude Law get notable mentions, but director Anthony Minghella is singled out for special treatment. Agent Leon, played outstandingly by Tom Hollander, is desperate to win Jude Law as a client, but it's not going well. "Well, who put him up to this?" he barks down the phone. There's a pause. Leon shouts back: "Well, tell Minghella he can suck my **** in hell! !" Admittedly the language may not be to everyone's taste, but there's something very daring - and funny - about a satire that uses the names of real personalities. The comedy strikes its target with cold efficiency. Oddly enough, the comedy's starting point was ageism, according to director and co-producer Simon Curtis: "Freezing came out of regular coffee meetings I had with writer James Wood when I left the BBC to focus on a freelance career as a director. "I started telling anecdotes about my new freelance life - spending all day bumping into my wife [Elizabeth McGovern, who stars in it], who is an actress. I'd also become struck by how much ageism there is in TV. I'd noticed it in my wife's work, where I once heard an agent describe an actress in her 30s as being in 'her suicide years'." Writer James Wood says: "Simon, God bless him, one day just said, 'Do you think my life with Elizabeth is funny?' He tends to tell these anecdotes, at his own expense, about his life. And then he said, 'I'd love to do a comedy about when fame and opportunity go away.' And I thought this was very funny." Wood says he wrote the pilot script in a week, and it was shot in six days. "We almost shot it in Simon's house, but we decided not to because Simon drew the line at the actor Hugh Bonneville being in his bed with his wife." Bonneville plays Matt, a likeable chump in his 40s who was replaced by his assistant at a publishing house. He is married to Hollywood actress Elizabeth McGovern, who is also having a career dip. But the real tension in the comedy doesn't come from their relationship; it's their dealings with Matt's friend Leon, who also happens to Elizabeth's agent. In the first episode, Leon offers Elizabeth a small part in Holby. He tells her: "You will do Holby because it is out there!" As we all know Says Curtis: "Our theme was two freelancers hitting 40 suffering the agony of being too old in their chosen professions, and then James wrote a hilarious script. My agent sent it to [BBC comedy boss] Kenton Allen and he became a tremendous advocate of it. It was thrilling to find a daring executive with a sense of humour who supported the project and he became the invaluable producer of the show." The plot takes a twist in the second episode when Leon insists that he moves in. The consequences of this are readymade for great sitcom. Leon, this raging, impossibly successful agent, is like a child to Matt and Elizabeth, who are trying to adopt. Says Curtis: "Leon moves into their house, dramatising the bizarre, and hopefully entertaining, consequences of paying your agent 10 per cent of your income to live rent-free in your own home." Wood is now putting together another six storylines for BBC2 in the hope that it gets recommissioned for another series. But the writer has a refreshing attitude to the quirkiness of television executives. "Instantly, the moment you're on BBC2, you can feel the decisionmaking process slowing down." So back to BBC4, then? "Yeah! No one watches it, but you can have a decision quickly." Wood just doesn't seem to care, a tone that feeds into the comedy. IN THE third episode, Leon is described by a fellow agent, played by actor James Fox, as a "toxic yob". Says Wood: "That's exactly how I've heard certain agents around town described. "I don't think you have to be like Leon to be a successful agent, but are a number of successful agents like that? The answer is yes. "They model themselves much more on that kind of incredibly energetic, hyper-aggressive agenting style that is a lot more common in the States. "And they all wear those little Madonna-style earpieces, and pace restlessly, and they do incredibly well, but here, they stand out, because compared to Hollywood, we're a village really. I can never understand that level of aggression if you are, for example, talking to the casting director for Holby." Wood adds: "There's one agent in town who thinks it's actually about him and loves the show. He thinks we're there to serve his ego, and even suggests moments. He says, 'You won't believe how I behaved on Tuesday, ' and sends an e-mail to us." In episode two, there's a wonderful parody of "C4's new historian", a character Wood describes as an "obnoxious, monstrous historian". Is that based on David Starkey? "It was written with a specific person in mind. You can mention him, but I couldn't possibly comment. All I would say to you is that he's very specifically called C4's new historian " And the Minghella line? "I was amazed that Tom was prepared to say that because Tom's a very successful actor and does telly and films, and Tom's happy to be rude about any director." And Sean Bean, Kate Beckinsale and Jude Law? "The Sean Bean story about the actor who won't work with a falcon because he's scared of getting bird flu is almost verbatim an encounter I had with an actor, but not Sean Bean. "Great chunks of the dialogue are true. As is often the case, the reality is far more monstrous than anything I might come up with on my own!" But how will the named actors react? "I would hope they've all got a sense of humour about it, and if they haven't, that's their problem. But I'm delighted to hear from people that it has proper teeth, and we have no intention of watering it down." And why so many comedies about the media? "Well, yes. Two or three years ago if you went into a commissioning editor with this type of comedy, they would have said it was elitist and navel-gazing. But now it's changed. "Although Freezing has lots of media in-jokes, the things I wanted to keep in there were a dysfunctional family that people could relate to and ageism. "And everyone relates to a difficult teenager in their life. Here, he just happens to be a horrible showbusiness agent."
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Post by beckettologist on Feb 27, 2008 18:43:36 GMT -5
This article is really about the show itself, but certainly seems to indicate that Tom's character is the pivot around which all activity takes place..... Thanks Dr. Content. Loved it. And it looks to me that there may be more coming...episodes that is...let's hope so. It was FANTASTIC!
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