Category Archives: Interviews

Learning about American English from Alistair Cooke

Posted on November 17, 2012 by admin

By Ray Bennett The BBC has made more than 900 of Alistair Cooke’s radio reports, Letter From America, available online and I am reminded of the one time I got to talk to him. Cooke was one of my heroes … Continue reading →

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John Williams on Sinatra, Gene Kelly, and Hitchcock

Posted on August 30, 2012 by admin

By Ray Bennett John Williams celebrates his 80th birthday this year with concerts at The Hollywood Bowl on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 and the Royal Albert Hall on Oct. 19. He is celebrated rightly for his extraordinary work with Steven Spielberg … Continue reading →

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Recalling … Jimmy Edwards and Eric Sykes in Detroit

Posted on July 8, 2012 by admin

By Ray Bennett British comedian Jimmy Edwards sauntered into the lobby of the Pontchartain Hotel in Detroit an inch or two behind a magnificent white moustache, cane in hand and a Moss. Bros. light brown bowler atop his portly frame. January … Continue reading →

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Why Andy Griffith could never be ‘A Face In The Crowd’

Posted on July 6, 2012 by admin

By Ray Bennett Andy Griffith made his big screen debut in Elia Kazan’s 1957 drama “A Face In The Crowd” as a charismatic media sensation named Lonesome Rhodes who exploits his sudden popularity for political gain. In the second excerpt … Continue reading →

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Andy Griffith on why ‘No Time for Sergeants’ cheated

Posted on July 5, 2012 by admin

By Ray Bennett Andy Griffith didn’t do a great many interviews but I spent most of the afternoon of March 18, 1986 with him, just the two of us in an otherwise empty dining room at what I seem to … Continue reading →

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Norman Jewison on the music in ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’

Posted on October 23, 2011 by admin

By Ray Bennett GHENT, BELGIUM: Canadian filmmaker Norman Jewison has had an outstanding career as director and producer of major Hollywood films but it’s sometimes overlooked how much great music played in his success and how many wonderful composers he … Continue reading →

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New release scheme for ‘Paris Connections’ by Jackie Collins

Posted on April 7, 2010 by admin

By Ray Bennett Take veteran top-level Hollywood producers, add the UK’s leading supermarket and mix with some of the most popular novelists in the world and you have Amber Entertainment, which founder Ileen Maisel describes as a new paradigm for … Continue reading →

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‘Up’ director Pete Docter talks about his fly-away hit

Posted on January 5, 2010 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Pete Docter says that many people seem to have the impression that making computer animation is easy: “Somehow, they think, oh, it’s computers. You just type in ‘make movie’ and enter. They have the thought … Continue reading →

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‘How on earth can Barnaby be sexy?’, asks John Nettles

Posted on December 1, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – John Nettles, who has decided to leave his long-running hit show “Midsomer Murders”, is considerably more colourful than his screen role although that has made little difference to fans of the show in more than 230 territories around … Continue reading →

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When Mackenzie Phillips was fired from ‘One Day at a Time’

Posted on September 26, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Mackenzie Phillips has written a memoir titled “High On Arrival” in which she says that she had an incestuous relationship with her father, John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas. Family members have fallen … Continue reading →

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