Categories Peaky Blinders Tributes

‘There will never be another you’ — Dublin artist creates stunning mural in honour of Helen McCrory

Aunt Polly Immortalized

by Eva Wall | extra.ie | April 26, 2021

A Dublin-based artist has created a stunning mural to Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory, who passed away earlier this month.

On April 16, the sad news broke that Helen had died of cancer at the age of 52, sending fans, friends and industry colleagues alike into mourning.

Helen’s husband, British actor Damian Lewis, paid tribute to the mother of his two children, describing the actress as a ‘beautiful and mighty woman’ who had lived ‘fearlessly’.

Continue reading ‘There will never be another you’ — Dublin artist creates stunning mural in honour of Helen McCrory

Categories Anna Karenina As You Like It Damian Lewis Feed NHS Five Gold Rings Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Lucky Jim Medea MotherFatherSon Peaky Blinders Print Media The Deep Blue Sea The Late Middle Classes The Queen The Special Relationship Theatre Trelawny of the Wells Tributes Uncle Vanya

Helen McCrory, versatile actress who dominated the stage and shone on screen in Peaky Blinders and The Queen – obituary

The Telegraph’s Charles Spencer put her in his ‘pantheon of actors whose name in the programme always creates the anticipation of pleasure’

Helen McCrory, who has died of cancer aged 52, made her name as a subtle and intelligent stage performer, and later bucked the trend that consigns actresses to oblivion in middle age, becoming one of Britain’s most sought-after television stars in her 40s.

In the first decade of the new millennium she was hailed as one of the most promising presences in British theatre. Writing in the Telegraph in 2002, Jasper Rees placed her in the tradition of Judi Dench, Zoë Wanamaker and Imelda Staunton as “the small, punchy actress with a voice that can coat a back wall in honey from 100 paces.”

Continue reading Helen McCrory, versatile actress who dominated the stage and shone on screen in Peaky Blinders and The Queen – obituary

Categories Peaky Blinders Print Media Tributes

The Chap: RIP Helen McCrory

Remembering an inspiring encounter with Helen McCrory

Gustav Temple | April 17, 2021 | The Chap

peaky-blinders

As a tribute to the late actress, who died aged 52 on 16th April, Gustav Temple recalls an inspiring encounter with Helen McCrory in 2019, on the eve of Series 5 of Peaky Blinders.

I interviewed Helen McCrory when the fifth season of Peaky Blinders was about to air in 2019. From such a huge star of stage and screen, I expected the familiar ‘luvvy’ personality and being called ‘darling’ interspersed with quotes from Shakespeare, but Helen was the complete opposite. When asked whether we had accurately described the type of cigarettes she smoked in character as Aunt Polly, she waved her hand airily and said, “Oh, who cares? Let’s not let the facts get in the way of a good story.”

Continue reading The Chap: RIP Helen McCrory

Categories Anna Karenina Damian Lewis Fearless Feed NHS Harry Potter Leaving Peaky Blinders Prince's Trust Print Media Quiz Scene & Heard Skyfall The Deep Blue Sea The Queen

In Memoriam: Helen McCrory

A tribute to Helen McCrory and her extensive filmography

by Carly Horne | April 17, 2021 | The Courier

Following the announcement of Helen McCrory’s death on Twitter by husband Damian Lewis, comes the reflection of a life and career so full of exuberance and love. Although hers was a life cut far too short, it was also one marked by displays of endless generosity and incomprehensible levels talent which will surely be missed by all.

My first exposure to Helen McCrory came with the release of Skyfall in 2012. Something about her portrayal of Clair Dowar MP, a minor role relative to the scale of the film, just mesmerised me.

As Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, she shone. The mother of school bully, Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) and wife to notorious Death Eater, Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs) – Narcissa could easily have been a two-dimensional character. A ‘bad’ character. It’s hard to get away from the fact Narcissa Malfoy was a prejudicial pure-blood, but Helen McCrory brought so much humility and poise to what might have otherwise been an insignificant role.

Continue reading In Memoriam: Helen McCrory

Categories Medea Old Times Peaky Blinders Print Media The Deep Blue Sea Tributes Uncle Vanya

Helen McCrory would have been the next Helen Mirren or Judi Dench

The actress leaves an extraordinary body of work, but there is no doubt that she had so much more to give

The wonder for me about Helen McCrory – whose passing, at 52, is so cruel, so sad, such a profound and premature loss to the acting profession – is how relatively long it took for people to cotton on to her magnificence.

I was lucky enough to visit the Tricycle, north London one winter evening in 1995 and see her star as Lady M in Macbeth. In fact, of course, she wasn’t then the “draw” – here was, surprisingly enough, a Shakespeare production at a major off-West End venue renowned for its contemporary political work. It was an oddity from artistic director Nicolas Kent. Yet within the space of a couple of hours, I emerged with her name on my lips, and the surest conviction that I had set eyes on one of the greats.

Here was an actress who was so intense, so spellbinding, so caught up in every moment of every scene she was in that it was as though she carried a lifetime’s acting experience within her: but she was just in her mid-20s. Her flintiness illuminated every line it sparked off.  Rapt, I ended my review of that dark, sinister torch-lit night, referencing the sleepwalking scene, saying that “it is the sight of McCrory alone, scurrying restlessly round in the dark and hugging a single flame, that burns a lasting image of unstoppable evil onto your retina.”