A good life

[shewhomust]

I feel as if I grew up with Richard Briers. Say his name, and everyone thinks of The Good Life, but a decade earlier I was watching him in Marriage Lines, which I remember as depicting, even in the early 60s, the outdated cliché of marriage which could only exist in situation comedy - but watchable, enjoyable, for the performances of Richard Briers and Prunella Scales. I'd forgotten, until Wikipedia reminded me, about Brothers in Law. The Good Life was an inspired idea, and a wonderful ensemble piece, and it's no wonder that it is remembered.

In the 1980s, Richard Briers formed an alliance with Kenneth Branagh which gave him a number of Shakespearian rôles (I may be the only person who liked A Midwinter's Tale). You could have seen it as a second career, a return, but he'd never really been away. You'd be watching a film or the television and there he'd be (again, Wikipedia points out that he was even a villain in Doctor Who), or you'd recognise his voice in advertisement.

He was always there; and I'm sad to learn that now he isn't. But he's left some good stuff to remember him by.

Comments

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

You are very definitely not the only person who likes A Midwinter's Tale. The auditions scenes alone are worth the time of the movie, and the rest is also quite lovely and basically my favorite Branagh. I don't know why it's so overlooked.

And therefore I am sad of Richard Briers.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

It's good not to be alone!

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

I adore A Midwinter's Tale--it's the only Branagh I like. And Richard Briers was endearing in it. I am sad.

Nine

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Endearing was his default mode. Which may go some way to explain why I was so endeared to him.

[sovay]

But he's left some good stuff to remember him by.

I've been off the internet: I hadn't realized he was gone. I think I saw him most recently in the NT Live broadcast of London Assurance. I shall have to find something else now.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Only on Sunday, you haven't really missed the news. And happy hunting!

[valydiarosada.livejournal.com]

Richard Briers also did some Shakespeare with the Prospect Theatre Company in the early 70s. I remember seeing him as Richard III, while I was still in Cardiff. I tend to think of him in Brothers In Law. As for the wonderful scene in Cockneys Versus Zombies, where he frantically manhandles a Zimmerman frame too try and get away from a zombie, well, it's a good thing zombies move so slowly.

He'll be missed.

[valydiarosada.livejournal.com]

I did of course mean Zimmer frame, although the iPad begs to differ, and I did not notice the correction until it was too late.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Is your iPad a Les Barker fan?

[valydiarosada.livejournal.com]

Maybe.... :)