On Saturday, March 10, 2001, Kathie attended a "meet and greet" at the PBS station in Akron, Ohio. Philip Bretherton was a featured guest.

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MARLA'S OBSERVATIONS

On the biographical bit...Philip is from Preston, which is in NW England. His father is a banker and his mother a teacher, as I recall. He has one brother, who has two or three children (think it's three). As a youngster, he became interested in acting, did muscular dystrophy carnivals in his backyard and studied drama at University, did not go to acting school. He didn't commit fully to an acting career till a girlfriend told him she had put a down payment on a room in London for him. So, he went there, sold programs in West End theatre, worked as a cook and waiter (told several funny stories about that) and "pub theatre." It was from the latter that he got his first acting jobs.

He has been "involved" for l2 years with an actress, Sherry Baines. He met her when they were in "Cinderella" in regional theatre. She hurt her leg during a performance and needed a ride home, so Philip volunteered, since he was staying in her direction. The producers provided her with a car because of the accident and she began inviting Philip to ride home with her. He called Sherry his "partner."

He auditioned for the role of Alistair by reading scenes with GP. The people connected with ATGB liked his accent because it wasn't "public school." In other words he could play an upper crust sort with what Philip termed a "general" accent that wouldn't turn off viewers. He talked at some length about accents in Britain and also did a few.

ATGB is the only comedy he's done. His last project was in a hospital show called "Casualty," He played a doctor and was killed off after six months. Philip said he was looking forward to the death scene but it was done in such a way that he didn't have to act. The only upcoming project he mentioned is to be the voice of Jaguar commericals.

He expressed a great deal of interest in the relationship between Jean and Alistair in the first couple episodes...said it was unique and he wished it had continued longer. He liked it that Alistair alledgedly lost his money in the last episode, made him more vulnerable, said it was a "cop-out" that he seemed to get most of it back. He agreed with one of the questioners that it's time to have Alistair, Judy and Sandy "settle down." When the series first began, he was 35 and could understand the "man about town" role of Alistair, but now at 45, he's not so sure. He said there was concern about the direction of his new relationship with Sandy, as it related to Judy, so Larbey wanted to make clear that Alistair and Sandy did not sleep together, this was deliberately stated in the script. All of which seems to portend what might be part of the 9th season.

The original country house has been sold and the new owners were not as interested in having it used for location scenes. Philip thinks the country shows are the weakest, mostly because he believes Larbey has a "fantasy" view of country life more related to the l950's than now. He prefers the shows where the cast deals with "nothing" situations, a la Seinfeld.

He said he is not like Alistair although he wished he were, especially having Alistair's money. No, Philip does not drive a Range Rover, far from it. He launched into a rather lengthy (he kept calling it "my blathering") comment about salaries in Britain, stating that, while actors make more than nurses, miners, etc., they are still not that far up on the salary scale unless doing West End theatre. He mentioned that regional theatre in Britain is notoriously poorly paid. The medical consultant on "Casualty" made more than a doctor! He laughed and admitted he doesn't want his salary to go down, but he thinks other salaries should come up. It was a quasi-political comment and was delivered in a way that came across as quite empathetic, as well as indicating how much he considers acting a career or profession, rather than a celebrity thing.

As to spinoffs, he mentioned that GP is often called Britain's Walter Mathau and there had been "talk" of he and GP doing an "Odd Couple" sort of TV series. Nothing came of it, probably becuse, as Marla noted, it is difficult to pry GP away from fishing.

Several questioners asked him to say "Hey-Hey" and "Hi Li," which he somewhat bashfully obliged. In reply to a question about any ad libing between him and GP, he said "no" that GP is a stickler for following the script...and, sounds very much like the rock, upon whom the rest of the cast relies.

The Ohio PBS station was selling a T-shirt with Alistair's photo on the front under "Hey-Hey, I'm Your Guy." On the back of the shirt was Philip's signature. Also, they were selling mugs with the same photo and, finally, the photo itself. Interestingly, the photo being distributed of him at the "meet and greet" did NOT have him wearing glasses, but the one used for pledges did. He definitely looks better with glasses (I guess because we are so used to seeing him with them on), which he wore throughout the interviews.

Finally, some odds and ends...as to the tie that Lionel continually wears, Philip said it must be a "regimental" tie, seemed not to realize how often GP wore it. He also likes the "Sopranos" and "West Wing" from American TV. Mentioned that Frank Middlemass dresses off camera as dapperly as he does on and that Joan Simms "corpses" worse than JD, so the cast is warned not to make her laugh because it will take a half hour to get her back to normal.

Someone asked about practical jokes and he mentioned the two from the Miller book...when JD tells everyone to hide so that Lotterby is left alone talking to the dog...and when Lotterby says he likes women to wear black and the female cast and crew come in dressed in black from head to toe.

Philip had not seen the photo taken after the taping of the cast and those of us who went to London last year. He seemed pleased to sign it. I asked him why he wasn't on the ATGB audio recording and he said that was something he was very unhappy about (as was GP). Philip said the ATGB staff thinks "we don't do anything else." He was called two weeks before they did the show for BBC radio and was otherwise committed, although he said, "I did do the one they did after that." Unfortunately, I didn't get to inquire about another audiotape, since the event staff was trying to move us along but I did not know till then there MAY be another ATGB audiotape.

To sum up (sorry this is so long), I found Philip to be totally charming in a, yes, Cary Grant sort of way. He is articulate, suave, funny, self deprecating, warm...a more down to earth Alistair, if you will. He talks in complete sentences and even paragraphs!!! which, alas, is not what I'm used to in most celebrity interviews and this one lasted over 90 minutes!!!! And, he is very generous with his time, since I'm sure it took several hours to sign autographs and have his photo taken after the Q&A.

Thanks to Kathie for agreeing to let me post her remembrances of the occasion.

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