Helen McCrory

A Poet for Every Day of the Year at the National Theatre – Helen McCrory remembered in powerful evening

On January 29, 2022January 29, 2022 By helenistic No Comments

A variety of readers took the stage to mark the new anthology

by Sarah Crompton | What’s on Stage | January 26, 2022

*A Poet for Every Day of the Year* © Urszula Soltys

There’s something about poetry. Spending an hour listening to a company of fine actors reading verse aloud is like simultaneously being offered a hug and a cold shower of clarity in one all-embracing package. It feels comforting and stimulating at the same time.

When the event is dedicated to the memory of Helen McCrory, who had performed at similar events over the years, there’s an additional patina of melancholy, but also of pertinence. She thought poetry mattered and supported Allie Esiri’s passionate determination to make it a part of our daily lives. We would do well to listen.

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Damian Lewis Events Poetry Print Media Reviews Tributes

A Poet for Every Day of the Year review: Ode to Helen McCrory cuts to the heart of the matter

On January 26, 2022 By helenistic No Comments

An Ode to Helen McCrory at the National Theatre

by Dominic Maxwell | The Times | January 26, 2022

Damian Lewis paid fitting tribute to his late wife URSZULA SOLTYS

★★★★☆

How would Damian Lewis, making his first stage appearance since the death of his wife Helen McCrory last April, begin an occasion dedicated to her memory? With a no-nonsense nod to the mixture of happiness and sadness of being at an occasional poetry reading event that she had taken part in previously herself? With a poem in her honour, performed to a well-scrubbed crowd (including McCrory’s friend Helena Bonham Carter) who had turned out to see him and Sir Simon Russell Beale, Fay Ripley, Danny Sapani and Lesley Sharp reading from the latest anthology of 366 poems edited by the evening’s organiser and host, Allie Esiri?

Continue reading A Poet for Every Day of the Year review: Ode to Helen McCrory cuts to the heart of the matter

Damian Lewis Events Poetry Readings Tributes

DAMIAN LEWIS READS FROM ‘A POET FOR EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR’ IN HONOR OF HELEN MCCRORY

On January 25, 2022January 27, 2022 By helenistic 1 Comment

A Poetry Reading Dedicated to Helen

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | January 25, 2022

‘There will be dying, but there is no need to go into that…The sun rises in spite of everything…Everything is going to be all right.’ – Derek Mahon

On Tuesday, January 25, 2022 guests gathered for a live poetry reading dedicated to the late, great Helen McCrory. Allie Esiri, author of her latest installment A Poet for Every Day of the Year, curated the night’s event at the Lyttelton venue of National Theatre in London. From 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. a variety of readers took to the stage to read verse from the new anthology, including Damian Lewis, Lesley Sharp, Fay Ripley, Simon Russell Beale and Danny Sapani with 900+ audience members in attendance, together with Damian and Helen’s children Manon and Gulliver and family friend Helena Bonham Carter.

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Audio Music Radio

‘It’s a show about love’: Desert Island Discs celebrates 80 years on air

On January 23, 2022January 23, 2022 By helenistic No Comments

Helen McCrory’s DID is among the 5 Key Shows

By Donna Ferguson | The Guardian | January 23, 2022

As the radio classic marks a major anniversary, it’s the shared human experience revealed by the castaways that keeps us hooked

Louis Armstrong, Helen McCrory and George Michael were all guests on the show. Composite: Redferns; REX/Shutterstock; Getty

A familiar theme tune is playing in my ears as I step out of my front door and start running. It is a cold, frosty day in Cambridge but as I make my way towards Midsummer Common and the River Cam, I am transported to a much warmer climate. A desert island, where I know I will find exactly eight tracks of music, the Bible, the complete works of Shakespeare and an incongruous luxury.

I am, of course, listening to Desert Island Discs, which will celebrate its 80th anniversary next weekend. First broadcast on 29 January 1942, it is the jewel in BBC Radio 4’s crown, to the extent that being on it is “kind of like getting a people’s knighthood”, observes the Observer’s radio critic, Miranda Sawyer. “There is no better radio show,” she says. “And I think, because it’s been for so long, there’s a status attached to getting picked – like, if you get asked to be on Desert Island Discs, that means somehow that you’ve made it.”

There are now more than 2,300 episodes of the show available online from the BBC archive. The oldest available dates back to 1951, when Roy Plomley interviewed the actress Margaret Lockwood and the famous theme tune was heralded by squawking seagulls and the crash of waves.

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Peaky Blinders Print Media Tributes

Peaky Blinders’ Cillian Murphy Explains How Helen McCrory’s Death Will Impact Season 6

On January 20, 2022January 20, 2022 By helenistic No Comments

“We couldn’t quite fathom it all as we were making it.”

by Dan Seddon | Digital Spy | January 20, 2022

Helen McCrory and Cillian Murphy attend the Premiere of BBC Two’s drama “Peaky Blinders” episode one, series three at BFI Southbank on May 3, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images)

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight managed to keep the late great Helen McCrory “very present” in the upcoming sixth and final season.

The Polly Gray performer tragically died last April following her battle with cancer, but according to Tommy Shelby star Cillian Murphy, she would’ve reprised her role if it hadn’t been for pandemic-related complications.

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