Take me back to 2001

Tales From Pleasure Beach is described as a “darkly comic three part drama series about people who work in the funfair of a Welsh seaside town and live in the adjoining trailer park. Cinematically filmed and resonant with kitsch seaside glamour, these are very contemporary stories of desire and betrayal, pulling and pinching, getting wasted and getting away.” — Blast Films

Eve starred in the second episode called “Lush.” Here is a brief synopsis:

Angie (Eve Myles) and her best mate Karen (Siwain Morris) are an inseparable pair of party animals. They go out together, get steaming together and always pull together. Observing Angie’s dictum that men aren’t to be trusted, their golden rule is that they should never go back to the same bloke twice.

This friendship is jeopardised when Karen does the unthinkable and falls for a laddish local builder called Sonny (Richard Lynch). As Karen starts spending more time in with Sonny and less time out on the town with her, Angie begins to feel neglected and her jealousy starts to take hold. Fueled by the secret of her past relationship with Sonny, Angie does everything in her power to get Karen to dump him. One night, after Angie and Karen have had a terrible row, Karen sets out to prove that Sonny, like all men, will stray if he’s given the opportunity – by seducing him herself.

A half-naked Eve Myles

What follows are three video clips taken from this episode. The first and third video clips can be found easily on the internet while the second video clip is not as easy to obtain.

This first video clip features the intro to the series with music. Eve can be seen at the :16 mark.

The second video clip shows Eve in a scene where her character, Angie, talks to Karen about her boyfriend’s “special needs.” Eve appears to be wearing only a shirt in this scene and is smoking a cigarette. While it’s brief, you do get an idea of the character she had to play.

The second scene in this video clip shows Angie and Karen at a night club. Here you get a sense of anger from the character because she feels that her friend is making a big mistake.

The final video clip features a subdued love scene.

You may have noticed (among other things) Eve looking at the camera for a split second at around the :08 second mark. I wonder if this was her first love scene in a film or if she was just nervous? Comment if you think you know.

Conclusion

There was very little to work with here, but I will say that Eve’s work in TV/film was really good back then. This was a big step up from Hang the DJ and probably on par with her early work in Belonging. Her acting is very natural and is truly believable—a sign of a great actress that goes on to bigger and better things, reaching fame and fortune in the process.

And Eve has earned every bit of it.

Notes

While it would have been great to view the entire episode, I was only able to get a few snippets from it. I may end up contacting Blast Films to see about getting this series for myself or ask them about releasing it on DVD.

There’s some additional footage of the love scene featured in the Media Forum on this site. To see it you will need to register and make a few posts before you can access it. It’s of higher quality and a bit more detailed if that matters to you.

Screencaps

Screencaps

Video

This film is really funny and Eve’s performance is flawless. She doesn’t get a lot of screen time, but I thought the role was a perfect fit for her. Watching her facial expressions and anger toward the boyfriend alone is worth the price!

You can order the DVD from Amazon.co.uk here:

Here’s a short review of the film.

In a late night bar, Henry is approached by a mysterious woman who offers to sell him the severed manhood of Wales’ greatest vocal entertainer… Believing he can make a fortune by selling the infamous appendage, he teams up with his slightly dodgy best friend Teddy and takes a journey deep into the celebrity world of celebrity body trading in the wildest funniest comedy of the decade!!

Fans of Eve Myles won’t want to miss this one!

Watch the new DVD teaser:

The film runs about an hour and 30 minutes and the DVD is set to play on Region 2 or multi-region players.

Buy the DVD from Amazon.co.uk:

A Bit of Tom Jones DVD

This may seem a bit rough for some, but I got some good laughs from it. This was a stepping stone for Eve because she was clearly on a path to stardom in those early days.

Here’s the video in its entirety from the video site Veoh.

Cinema bosses have been so impressed by the Welsh reaction to the £100,000 movie, A Bit Of Tom Jones?, that it is set to be screened nationwide.

The cast, crew and backers of the bawdy farce about an attempt to sell the severed penis of the Welsh singer will appear in Leicester Square on 25 January.

Leading man Jonny Owen, 38, who has appeared in Torchwood, said: “Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would end up in Leicester Square.”

The cast also includes Denise Welch, Eve Myles and John Henshaw.

You can watch a trailer of the film and listen to an interview with the Director and Writer of the film, Peter Watkins-Hughes, by visiting the Entrepreneurial Cardiff website.

Source: London Evening Standard

Update..

Some new venue listings (thanks, Ronny):

A Bit Of Tom Jones? is playing for a week in Manchester, Bristol, Wales and London from today (29th Jan)

• Vue Lowry in Manchester
• Vue Longwell Green Bristol
• Vue Merthyr Tydfil
• Vue Shepherd’s Bush London

Check their websites for show times.

The Valleys-based caper A Bit of Tom Jones? – which receives a cinematic release across Wales next month – has triggered anger from subscribers to Sir Tom’s largest fan website.

One outraged Jones fan called the 2007 Tredegar-filmed movie that stars, among others, Torchwood’s Eve Myles, Loose Women’s Denise Welch and Mighty Boosh comic Matt Berry, “a sick nightmare”.

Other fans were similarly outspoken because the risque storyline revolves around a black market trade in the 69-year-old’s dismembered private parts.

“Sorry, I looked at the trailer for this – trash!” fumed one American follower calling herself Carol M.

“I am offended by this so-called ‘Welsh humour’ and I am far from a ‘stuffy’ person. But this is surely c**p!”

Pam, posted a similar rant from the US, adding: “I wasn’t amused.

“Not sure what kind of humour this is, but definitely not my kind.

“What anyone would find so funny about this is beyond me.”

Eve Myles as girlfriend Sally

Tom devotees questioned if the whole thing had been approved by the star’s management and summed their thoughts up on the subject with one word: “Dumb!”

However, it wasn’t all dissent.

Some compare the comic tone to The Full Monty or a certain early Monty Python outing that courted its own fair share of notoriety.

“This reminds me of how people were offended by The Life of Brian, which wasn’t really about Christ but more a comedy about the attitudes of people around him,” mused mharding.

“I suppose this story is about greed and gullibility and the film makers just needed a famous, er, name to hang the narrative on.

“In any case, Tom’s always wanted a big part in a film.”

Peter Watkins-Hughes, writer and director of A Bit of Tom Jones?, said the film was meant to be just “shameless entertainment,” adding that the idea for it came about while thinking about what to get his wife for her birthday.

“I was running out of jewellery ideas, so I started thinking what I could get to surprise her,” said the 43-year-old from Brynmawr.

“Then I remembered the true story about the selling off of Napoleon Bonaparte’s private parts after his death and, suddenly, this entire concept came to me.”

But, he added, the original idea was to be set in 1960s Los Angeles and concerning the fate of Errol Flynn’s private parts.

“Then I realised, I didn’t have enough money for the airfare to LA – let alone the $15m budget needed to shoot it Stateside – so I brought the idea closer to home.

He added that the film was “a lowbrow comedy for lowbrow people, like me”.

Bernie Snowball, manager of Market Hall Cinema, Brynmawr, where the film will debut on November 13, before showing at venues such as Chapter in Cardiff, said he believes it could do very well.

“It’s great to finally have a commercial, audience-pleasing product from Wales,” he said.

“It’s a fun, daft, laugh-out-loud film that I think could do serious business at the box office.”

Source: Wales Online

See the trailer and showing venues at: http://www.abitoftomjonesthemovie.com

‘A Little Bit of Tom Jones’ Is going on general release throughout Wales in November and will go up against blockbuster films such as Michael Jackson’s ‘This is It’ and 2012.

The film was shot on a shoestring budget in just four weeks in the Valleys town and the plot centres around a wild 24 hours in Tredegar, focusing on the misfortunes of the lead character…

Eve Myles plays the role of Sally.

Known to millions for her role as Gwen in the hugely successful hit series Sci Fi series Torchwood, Eve is recognised as one of Wales’ finest actors. Born and raised in Ystradgynlais, Eve first caught the public eye with her role in the Welsh set series Nuts+Bolts (where she first worked with ‘A Bit of Tom Jones?’ co-stars Jonathan Owen and Roger Evans, and director Peter Watkins-Hughes) and leading roles in Belonging, Score and Doctor Who.

Equally at home on the stage as screen, Eve is former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, In 2005, she appeared opposite Michael Gambon in Henry IV, Part I and II at the National Theatre. The role of Gwen in Torchwood was specifically written for Eve by series creator Russell T Davies.

You can read the full article here.

And the official website here, which includes a trailer, showing dates, competitions and much more.

But the BBC’s depiction of North Wales in new drama Framed was missing one vital element – the right accent.

Viewers of the network drama, which aired on BBC One on Monday night, have complained that many of the show’s characters spoke in a softer South Walian accent. But the BBC has insisted it never meant to offend.

Filmed in and around Snowdonia’s Blaenau Ffestiniog, Framed, starring Trevor Eve and Eve Myles, was meant to be set in a fictional sleepy village in North Wales. But there was no sign of the strong North Walian accent, which can often be confused with a Liverpudlian accent when English is spoken, and is more nasal and high-pitched than the South Wales accent when Welsh is spoken.

Angharad Clwyd of the Welsh Language Society said: “It’s typical of the BBC’s laziness that they used a South Wales accent in an area with such a strong North Walian accent. They wouldn’t set a drama in Newcastle and people it with Cockneys would they?”

A viewer commented on the BBC’s website: “The research for this show must have been no more than watching an episode of Gavin & Stacey and How Green Was My Valley.”

Drama teacher Anne Jones of the Props theatre company in Colwyn Bay was outraged at the programme’s disregard for the North Walian accent and argued it was a symptom of the area’s inadequate representation in the TV industry.

“It was dreadful,” she said.

“The accents were South Walian and there was nothing of North Wales at all.

“Everything is centralised in South Wales and very rarely in North Wales, which seems small-minded.

“In the area the programme was meant to be based, the accent would have been a very hard ‘Gog’ accent, rather than the more lyrical accent in other areas. It is nothing like the South Wales accent.

“Some people think North Walians are from Liverpool or Lancashire. The South Walian accent is no more Welsh – it’s influenced by Somerset and Gloucestershire. But (on television) the stereotypical Welshman speaks with that accent.”

The BBC defended its choice of South Walian cast members by claiming they chose the best actors for the show, rather than focusing on accents.

A BBC spokeswoman told the Western Mail: “Absolutely central to the casting of Framed were the young child actors who played the Hughes children.

“After an extensive casting search, the children who shone out as the best qualified for the roles both happened to come from South Wales.

“We then took the difficult decision to allow them to concentrate on their performances rather than change their natural accents (very hard for a 10-year old to achieve) and once this decision was made all the other characters fitted into place around the central family.”

She added that the broadcaster’s priority was to do justice to Frank Cottrell Boyce’s novel, on which the series is based.

“We were fully aware of the differences between the North and South Wales accent and never meant to cause offence, but all productions have to be adaptable when working with children,” said the spokeswoman.

“We felt that the priority was to deliver Frank’s enchanting book to BBC One in a manner that celebrated the Welsh landscape, the Welsh vibrancy and the Welsh humour, and strove to be as authentic as we could be, given casting and budget constraints,” she added. “The production team were made extremely welcome when filming on location in Snowdonia and the programme has been very well received.”

Source: Wales Online

IT’S a long way from saving the planet in Torchwood but Eve Myles loved the change of pace playing a village school teacher in BBC One’s new one-off drama.

Framed was set and filmed almost entirely in Wales and tells how village life changes when a group of outsiders arrive.

Eve plays Angharad the local schoolteacher who finally manages to win through the reserved nature of a museum curator played by Trevor Eve.

The 90-minute drama is based on Frank Cottrell Boyce’s best-selling children’s novel of the same name.

It follows the lives of 10-year-old Dylan Hughes and his family’s struggle to keep afloat their small petrol station at the foot of a Welsh mountain.

When a convoy of men and trucks take up residence on the mountain, villagers discover that the National Gallery in London has been flooded and the priceless paintings sent to Wales for safekeeping in the old slate mine, as they were in World War Two.

In charge of this is Quentin Lester, played by Trevor, a reserved senior curator who is eventually drawn out of his shell by Angharad.

Filming in Wales was a sort of homecoming for both Eve and Trevor. Both actors loved filming in Snowdonia and in and around Cardiff.

Eve, 31, was born in Ystradgynlais and is used to filming at home playing Gwen in Dr Who spin-off Torchwood while Trevor, 58, one of television’s best known leading men, has family in Swansea and holidayed in Mumbles as a child.

Eve, 31, who is expecting her first child in November, admits it was hard switching from gun-toting Gwen in Torchwood to a gentle teacher from rural Wales.

“It’s been quite difficult actually because I’m used to doing bold things with guns,” she laughs.

“Angharad is different to Gwen she’s quieter, more thoughtful. She is not soft, she is feisty but she is a lot more complicated. She’s quite nosy, but she’s only nosy because she’s been living there for such a long time and not a lot happens.”

The actress was “blown over” by Frank Cottrell Boyce’s script. His story is aimed at all ages in the drama adaptation but it retains a non-cynical innocence from the children’s novel which Eve and Trevor enjoyed portraying.

“Frank is a tremendous writer. And to meet him in person was such a treat,” says the Welsh actress.

“I’d love to see a collaboration between him and Russell (T Davies) – that would just be out of this world.”

She said Cottrell’s romantic script for Framed has a feel-good factor that made her smile all the way through reading it.

“The script was beautiful.

“I love stories that are told through children’s eyes because everything is real and honest in that way because children tend not to lie.

“They tend to say the truth whether it gets them in trouble or not and I think that reflects life because it’s in your face, no cover-ups, no apologies and it’s totally beautiful.”

She’s hoping Framed will be part of the continuing boom in the television industry in Wales.

“When I was in college, everyone had to move to London for work but now its very different,” she says.

“ If you want to live and work in Cardiff you can because of the fantastic projects going on in BBC Wales. Plus there are an awful lot of projects coming down to Wales to be filmed because of the location and facilities.

“In the last five, six years it’s just gone ‘bam’ and some of the most popular dramas on television are being made in the city. I’m one of the proudest Welsh women to live knowing that fact – it is a very exciting time to be a part of it all.”

But for now Eve herself is taking a break from acting as she prepares for the birth of her first baby.

“I’m going to have my feet up and get huge. It’s almost hysterical how excited I am,” she says.

“I’ve bought everything you can think of. Everything is prepared and done and the only thing to arrive now is my little darling. Already the baby and I have a fabulous relationship. We have loads of conversations and we chat.

“It’s my miracle, it’s my blessing and I can’t wait. I’ve never been so grateful for something in all my life. So, as you can tell, I’m ecstatic.”

Playing opposite Trevor Eve she says she had to coax his reserved character Lester into the limelight but Angharad she is more than just a school ma’am out to melt the visiting museum curator.

“You see how lonely she’s been throughout the story and through her closeness with Lester you realise she has been here on her own for a long time,” Eve explains.

“ She’s been looking for a challenge, she has been a very big fish in a little pond until Lester arrives and she finally meets somebody who is on her level.”

Trevor, who has had leads in Waking the Dead, Hughie Green, Most Sincerely and the legendary ’70s private detective, Shoestring, says Framed was also a big change for him.

“Lester is very different from the roles that I usually play,” Trevor agrees.

“He’s not a criminal investigator for once or even a game show host,” he laughs.

“He’s the curator at the National Gallery, someone who has devoted his life to art and the appreciation of art.

“He’s intolerant of people and doesn’t find them as fascinating as the canvasses that are in front of him.”

To research the part he went to the National Gallery to find out about the paintings and how Lester might have operated there.

“I’ve spent time in the National Gallery and it’s not an effort believe me – I mean it’s just wonderful.

“I think the work is just spectacular, you read about it and you read about the lives of the artists and it’s amazing.”

In the end the Welsh villagers bring Trevor’s character round to an appreciation of people, Angharad in particular.

Trevor says he enjoyed working with Eve as well as the child actors in the drama, all of whom come from Wales.

“It’s been great working with Eve, she’s delightful, a really lovely girl,” he says. “And it’s a spectacular setting. The landscape is so dramatic, it’s quite wonderful up there (in Snowdonia), apart from the fact it seems to rain most of the time, but it’s breathtaking.

“I’ve really enjoyed filming in Wales.

“My mother was from South Wales so most of my holidays as a child were spent in the Mumbles, so it was my home. And part of my family still live in Swansea, so it’s familiar environment to me.”

Several scenes were filmed at Welsh Slate’s Cwt y Bugail quarries, known locally as Manod quarries, the exact place where priceless paintings were hidden from possible Nazi invaders during World War Two.

Franck Cottrell Boyce says he was “chuffed to bits” to film at the site which inspired his original book.

For Trevor not only his character but also the setting and his fellow actors were a change from previous work.

Many of his scenes were with child actors Samuel Davies, 12, from Swansea and Mari Ann Bull, 10, from Cardiff who play the Hughes children.

The veteran actor says he wouldn’t attempt” to give them advice.

“They’re really talented; their level of professionalism is amazing,” he says.

“They are more professional than me and I’ve been at it 35 years.”

It’s the children who bring the drama to a climax when a misunderstanding leads Lester to invite Dylan to view the paintings inside the mountain.

This sets off an extraordinary chain of events that transforms the lives of the villagers and Lester himself.

As millions tune in on Bank holiday Monday to find out what happens, Eve will be doing the same thing as she puts her feet up and waits for her next important engagement – her baby’s birth.

Framed, BBC One, Monday, 8.30pm

Source: Wales Online

A DVD of the film was reported to be in the works as well and we’ll keep you updated on its availability.

If you have no idea what this film is about or haven’t been keeping track of it, here’s the trailer and it looks to be one hell of a ride!