BORN TO RERUN - THE ACTOR'S LIFE FOR ME-TV

Aristarchus: 

What a voice! Perhaps we should change places? 

Only the Romans can afford ushers with a voice like that. 

Did you have it trained?

Pallas: 

I was an actor, sir.

Aristarchus: 

That explains it. Resting, are you?

Pallas: 

No, sir. I've given it up... 

Everyone's an actor in Rome. There isn't enough work.

Aristarchus: 

And what there is goes to friends... 

It's the same everywhere.  

Pallas: 

The theatre isn't what it was.

Aristarchus: 

No. And I'll tell you something else. 

It never was what it was.

'I, Claudius'

Harold Winstanley:

God, what am I doing here?
Casting pearls before uncultured swine.

I, who directed a number one tour of "Spider's Web".

With the original West End cast.

One critic said he'd never seen anything like it in the whole of his theatrical life.

How often Johnny G* would turn to me for advice.

"Harold, love," he would say, 

"Dear boy, this speech of Prospero's...."

'Midsomer Murders'

(At that point he was interrupted.....)

Back on Mother's Day, I shared a "Born To Rerun" theory which connected the long-running British murder mystery to the classic 70s adaptation of Robert Graves' novel about the Caesars, using an actress who played both the murderer in one episode in that pastoral setting as well as one of the most powerful women in History.

Didn't catch it then?  Click here.

And now here we have another fine example of reincarnation between the two series - the soul of a frustrated Greek actor manifesting as a theatre director of former glories driven mad by what he perceived as the betrayals of the world against him.

Although it's not always necessary, it helps my argument when both roles are played by the same actor.  In that previous example, Lady Annabel and Livia were portrayed by Sian Phillips.  And it was Bernard Hepton who took on the roles of Pallas and Winstanley.

BCnU!

* By the way, "Johnny G" is a reference to Sir John Gielgud, known as one of the triumvirate of greatest actors of the 20th Century in Great Britain.  (The other two being Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir Ralph Richardson.)  This confirms the Oscar winner (Best Supporting Actor for 'Arthur') as having a fictional televersion in the main Toobworld.  His animated televersion is also referenced in an episode of 'The Simpsons' (rather scandalously, I would say) and he does appear as himself in Skitlandia, along with Sir Ralph, thanks to an episode of 'SCTV'.