Peaky Blinders – Damian Lewis

Telegraph Interview: Isolated in Suffolk Put to Good Use – April 24, 2020

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Isolated in Suffolk, TV’s First Couple Have Created a Scheme to Supply the NHS with Thousands of Meals

by Guy Kelly | The Telegraph | April 24, 2020

Spare a thought for celebrities at the moment. Forced into lockdown like the rest of the civilian population, and with unreliable Wi-Fi at their fourth homes, many have been unable to maintain their expensive round-the-clock PR advice.

That’s the only excuse I can think of for some recent announcements, anyway. Left unattended by people whose job it is to say, “That isn’t… the best look”, we have had the likes of billionaire Sir Richard Branson attempting to solicit mass public sympathy (and money) to help his struggling business. So, too, Victoria Beckham, who, from her Cotswolds mansion, has furloughed 25 employees rather than, say, dip into her estimated £360m fortune. Even Idris Elba, fresh from Covid-19, has drawn ire for his suggestion the “world should quarantine for a week every year to remember this time.”…

Fortunately, though, not all celebrities are quite so errant when left to their own devices. The Telegraph spoke to some who are putting their spare time to good use, beginning with actors Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory.

The couple, who have been married for almost 13 years, were working apart when lockdown neared in March. Lewis, star of Homeland, was in New York, filming the fifth series of Sky’s Billions, when the TV business started shutting down, forcing him to return to England.

McCrory, who was last seen in ITV’s Quiz, meanwhile, was closer to home, filming the sixth series of Peaky Blinders. Together with co-star Cillian Murphy and producers, it was her decision to tell the BBC she was “not comfortable doing this anymore” and request they pause production.

Continue reading Telegraph Interview: Isolated in Suffolk Put to Good Use – April 24, 2020

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Helen and Damian Toy With The Idea of Making West End Appearance Together – April 9, 2020

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On Stage Together Next Year?

by Baz Bamigboye | Daily Mail | April 9, 2020

Helen McCrory and Damian Lewis have been toying with the idea of making their first West End appearance together — hopefully next year, if their respective upended commitments will permit.

The couple fell in love when both were cast in the play Five Gold Rings at the off-West End Almeida Theatre back in 2003.

‘Damian and I would love to do something on stage together,’ McCrory told me. ‘We’ve been in long discussions.’

Tantalisingly, she added: ‘Rights are being bought’ to a 20th-century classic (which could be a comedy) that she declined to name until contracts are signed.

‘We’ve done so many other things that have taken us to lots of different places, and in lots of different directions,’ she noted.

Things such as his roles in Homeland, Wolf Hall and Billions.

And her stellar cast of characters: the glamorous but lethal Aunt Polly in Peaky Blinders; Narcissa Malfoy in Harry Potter; and now Sonia Woodley, the QC who represented Charles Ingram — aka the ‘Coughing Major’ — in Quiz.

The TV mini-series, sublimely written and directed by James Graham and Stephen Frears, respectively, will be broadcast on ITV for three consecutive nights from April 13. The cast is pretty awesome, too.

Continue reading Helen and Damian Toy With The Idea of Making West End Appearance Together – April 9, 2020

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Podcast Guests: Damian and Helen Discuss FeedNHS Efforts on The Coronavirus Newscast – April 9, 2020

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The Coronavirus Newscast

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | April 9, 2020

Every day, Adam Fleming, Laura Kuenssberg, Fergus Walsh and Chris Mason bring us the latest on the coronavirus pandemic in the UK via the The Coronavirus Newscast. They discuss the latest public health information and how it is affecting our lives. On Thursday, April 9, 2020 Damian and Helen were guests on the podcast to share with listeners about their #FeedNHS campaign and their efforts to feed frontline heroes, hospital staff.

Listen here at about 21:30 in.

Here are some soundbites and highlights in transcription form:

Continue reading Podcast Guests: Damian and Helen Discuss FeedNHS Efforts on The Coronavirus Newscast – April 9, 2020

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Damian Lewis Leads Restaurant Campaign to Feed Health Workers – April 9, 2020

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Coronavirus Appeal With Leon Restaurants Will Supply 6,000 Meals a Day

by Richard Vines | Bloomberg | April 9, 2020

The actor Damian Lewis initiated a campaign with the Leon healthy fast-food group to raise £1 million ($1.2 million) to feed National Health Service workers partly to overcome a feeling of helplessness he felt under lockdown.

The FeedNHS campaign, in alliance with Leon co-founder and chief executive John Vincent, is currently serving about 5,200 meals a day to critical-care workers at London hospitals and aims to reach its initial goal of 6,000 daily meals sometime next week. The campaign has support from restaurant groups including Wasabi, Tortilla, Peach Pubs, Rosa’s Thai, Hop, Pizza Pilgrims, Franco Manca, Farmer J, Tossed, Haché, Abokado, Dishoom and Nusa Kitchen.

“Helen (McCrory), my wife, and I have friends who are in quite senior positions in the NHS and the clarion call kept coming from everybody that it was difficult to get fed during the day and do you have any influence?” said Lewis, whose awards include an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his performance as Nicholas Brody in the TV series “Homeland.” Most recently he’s starred as a hedge fund manager in “Billions.”

Lewis and McCrory, who appeared in the Harry Potter movies and “Peaky Blinders,” are in touch with Vincent daily after reaching out via a mutual connection. The aim is simple, Lewis says:

“When you have done four hours straight, working ventilators in PPE (personal protective equipment) gear, you can walk out and someone will hand you a hot, healthy meal,” he said. “We all want to do something that can help. Staying at home is an odd feeling, like being under house arrest, feels cowardly, oddly, even though it is the most important thing you can do.”

Lewis said he’s been experiencing a range of emotions during the coronavirus lockdown in a telephone interview from his home in Suffolk, in the east of England:

Continue reading Damian Lewis Leads Restaurant Campaign to Feed Health Workers – April 9, 2020

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FeedNHS Update – April 8, 2020

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Thanks a Million!

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | original April 8, 2020 (updated April 24)

We reported earlier that Damian, Helen, and Matt Lucas had partnered with John Vincent of LEON Restaurants to feed NHS workers during the CoVid-19 crisis.

FeedNHS is campaigning to raise as much money as possible for NHS Trusts to get hot, healthy meals to NHS teams on the front line. They are starting their initiative with the hardest-hit London hospitals trusts Imperial, UCHL, Royal Free and St Barts, but they want to go further and take this nationwide.

And now, FeedNHS has become the fifth largest crowdfunding appeal on JustGiving raising over $1.1m (£1m). The campaign has reached more than 100% of the £1,000,000.00 target (£1,171,495). Initially providing 5,000-6,000 meals a day to hospital staff, FeedNHS now estimates it has the funds to serve up to 25,000 hot meals per day across 55 hospitals for the next six weeks, and looking to expand locations from London to Brighton, Birmingham, Cardiff and Manchester. Damian was quoted in Birmingham Live saying,

“But it means we can now kick in with a second round of funding – which is essentially what we are trying to do – in order to take it to Birmingham, Cardiff and Manchester, because the virus will move through those city centres.”

In addition, The Press and Journal reported that FeedNHS has teamed up with Mealforce, BaxterStorey, Feed Our Frontline and charity NHS Helpforce to tackle the task in pledging to serve hospital sites in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. But they want to keep going, as more funding is needed to add an extra 15,000 meals a day and to extend provision beyond six weeks, providing 600,000 more meals. You can help feed NHS workers one hot, healthy meal a day here.

Continue reading FeedNHS Update – April 8, 2020

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Coping With CoVid-19 Crisis: Damian and Helen on Feeding Health Workers After Filming Halted – April 6, 2020

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Helping Others: First Parking, Then Pizzas, Now FeedNHS.com

by Jake Kanter | Deadline | April 6, 2020

As coronavirus crashed through the TV business, husband and wife Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory were among those cast adrift. Lewis was making Season 5 of Billions, while McCrory was on the brink of going into production on Season 6 of Peaky Blinders. Now, both are holed up in their British countryside home in Suffolk. But far from quietly riding out the COVID-19 tsunami, the pair have leashed an anchor of sorts and are using their platform for a much-needed mission to feed frontline healthcare workers in the UK.

McCrory said she spent one-day doing hair and makeup and tests for Peaky Blinders, during which it dawned on much of the production team that “something very big is coming.” She explains: “The next morning I woke and told my producer I’m not comfortable doing this anymore… Cillian Murphy did the same. Together with the producers, we approached the BBC and said we’re going to pull this now before we have to do this down the line.” Production was halted on March 16, a mere three weeks ago. “That all seems like a very different world at the moment. Terribly unimportant,” McCrory reflects.

The couple turned to their friends in the National Health Service and asked where they could help. Their initial idea was to cover parking fines for the nurses and doctors who were getting caught out on long shifts, but the government soon moved to waive parking fees for health care workers. The next idea came from Bob Klaber, who works at the Imperial College Healthcare Trust in London. “He said the real problem is food,” recalls McCrory. With staff canteens in hospitals either not existing or shutting down, and nearby eateries closing amid the country-wide lockdown, some NHS employees were running on empty. Lewis and McCrory seized on Klaber’s idea and started getting pizzas delivered to intensive care units. The efforts were greeted by “lovely photos of smiling faces,” but it quickly became apparent that they needed something more sustainable — and nourishing — for those fighting coronavirus.

Continue reading Coping With CoVid-19 Crisis: Damian and Helen on Feeding Health Workers After Filming Halted – April 6, 2020

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Radio Times Magazine Interview – Oct 2, 2019

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Could the Next James Bond Be Ginger? The Famous Redhead Rules Himself Out

by Kristy Lang | Radio Times Magazine | Issue: October 5-11, 2019

In a five-star hotel suite high above the City of London, Damian Lewis and I have a ginger bonding moment. As a fellow redhead, I’ve long admired his rise through the acting world. Not many gingers get leading-man status, but after starring in series such as Band of Brothers, Homeland and Billions, Lewis is big in American.

We’re meeting to discuss his first venture into the world of documentaries, fronting and producing a series about spies on the History channel.

Lewis, now 48, was born in London but was sent to boarding school at a young age, which, he thinks, would make him a very good spy.

“If you are sent away from your family at the age of eight, it gives you a rigor, a dissociative quality that is extremely useful for spies because they have to be able to shut down parts of their emotional life. That’s why the British secret services actively recruited public schoolboys. Guy Burgess is the most extreme example of that. He was flamboyant, charming and mostly drunk – how he didn’t reveal what he was doing is a mystery to me.”

Continue reading Radio Times Magazine Interview – Oct 2, 2019

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Helen Dishes More About the Lewis-McCrory Household – Aug 29, 2018

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An Interview with Helen McCrory

by Tom Hodgkinson | Idler Magazine | August 28, 2019

I have met Helen McCrory before. She and her husband Damian Lewis are often to be seen at festivals, going to talks as everyday punters. In fact she gave me a compliment one year after I’d given a talk at Port Eliot Festival. I didn’t recognise her at first and just said “thanks”. As I wandered off I suddenly realised, “hang on, that was Helen McCrory!” Mutual friends told me that she and Damian were fans of my books, and I do remember them mentioning The Idle Parent in an interview. So I was delighted when her PR called and asked if we’d like an interview.

Tom Hodgkinson How did you get involved with Peaky Blinders?

Helen McCrory When they first approached me, they said: ‘Would you like to play Aunt Polly in this gangster drama set in Birmingham?” And I was like: “No.”

TH It sounded unappealing?

Continue reading Helen Dishes More About the Lewis-McCrory Household – Aug 29, 2018

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Helen McCrory: The Joy of Family Holidays in a Camper Van – Aug 12, 2019

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The Family’s Holiday House and Why Damian Isn’t Asked How He Juggles It All

by Julia Llewellyn Smith | The Times | August 12, 2019

Gosh, but having lunch with Helen McCrory is a daunting experience — a bit like sitting down with a more intelligent version of Princess Margaret or the seventh, undiscovered Mitford sister. Even though she’s a dainty thing, McCrory has extraordinary presence, crackling with the energy that has suffused her stage performances at the National, the Donmar and the Almeida and that underscored film roles such as Harry Potter’s Narcissa Malfoy. It has also made her the star of TV dramas such as Penny Dreadful and Peaky Blinders, the long-running BBC period crime drama that we’re here to discuss.

Her commanding aura is boosted by her Pathé-newsreel husky tones and by her marriage to another superstar, Damian Lewis, of Homeland and Billions fame. The couple are self-described “party animals”, frequently photographed looking Burton-and-Taylor glamorous on red carpets, and I imagine she would make the most brilliant hostess — fun, engaged and full of droll bons mots and anecdotes.

The regal effect is further enhanced by the fact that, in the pleasant but unglamorous surroundings of the British Film Institute restaurant on a baking-hot day (“I’m starving,” she barks before ordering asparagus, followed by a cobb salad with truffle fries), McCrory is in a long, flowery dress and full make-up for that evening’s London premiere of Peaky’s fifth season. “It’ll look good when it gets dark. For now it’s like, ‘My God, she’s like Liz Taylor the wheelchair years,’ ” she drawls.

McCrory doesn’t do traditional interviews, where she talks and I listen. Instead, she expects a conversation with topics ranging from how all young women today look identical (“Our generation had so many more styles to choose from. I really wanted to look like Debbie Harry — obviously quite a leap — then Siouxsie Sioux . . .”); to the recent resignation of the British ambassador to the US (McCrory’s father was a diplomat in countries such as Tanzania and Cameroon); to Peaky-related philosophical questions such as: “Is an act of goodness still good if you do it out of badness?” (She decides no.) It leaves me quite anxious that I haven’t been stimulating enough company.

Continue reading Helen McCrory: The Joy of Family Holidays in a Camper Van – Aug 12, 2019

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Damian and Helen Together On Stage Again? Hints Were Dropped! – Aug 9, 2019

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Damian the Husband: Organizing Road Trips, Planning Surprise Birthday Parties

by Gavanndra Hodge | The Telegraph | August 9, 2019

She’s straight-talking, hates housework, dresses to kill, and lives life her way – convention be damned. Turns out Helen McCrory has plenty in common with her badass Peaky Blinders character Polly.

Helen McCrory, the multiple-award winning actor, is holding what looks like a moist slice of turkey. ‘What is that?’ I ask. ‘It’s a face mask, darling. £1.99 from Superdrug,’ she says, rubbing it against her neck. ‘It’s going to make me look like a teenager.’

We are standing outside a café on the Regent’s Canal, cyclists and prams whizzing by. McCrory is wearing a floral tea dress, silver Zadig & Voltaire boots, sunglasses and a VIP wristband from a Bob Dylan concert she went to, five days ago. ‘I am never taking it off,’ she says.

There is a sort of rock-star swagger to Helen McCrory, 50, a charismatic, don’t-give-a-damn cool with her chipped red nails and posh-voiced sweariness. She likes to party, to wear top hats and vintage frocks, and there is the inevitable doubling of glamour that comes from her marriage to the actor Damian Lewis (Brody from Homeland, more recently Bobby Axelrod in Billions), with whom she lives in a tall, narrow house in Tufnell Park with their children Manon, 12, and Gulliver, 11.

But what is most thrilling about McCrory is not the husky wit, the famous friends (‘Have you seen Andrew [Scott] doing Present Laughter? Now that is how you do Coward’) or the fact that she ran an acid jazz club in Islington one summer in the early 1990s – it is her talent.

She brings a furious precision and intensity to the roles she takes: Medea and ‘Lady M’ on stage; on screen, Anna Karenina, Narcissa Malfoy, Cherie Blair and the gangster matriarch Aunt Polly in Peaky Blinders, the fifth season of which is soon to start on BBC One. Critics compete for the glowing adjectives when describing her performances – ‘superb’, ‘majestic’, ‘simply wonderful’. In 2017 she was awarded an OBE for services to drama.

Continue reading Damian and Helen Together On Stage Again? Hints Were Dropped! – Aug 9, 2019

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Peaky Blinders BFI TV Preview and After Party – July 24, 2019

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Peaking Blinders Season Five Screening

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | July 24, 2019

Source: Instagram @roxy_tvjourno

It was a night full of Peaky Blinders! While we don’t have a photo of Damian and Helen pictured together, we can share a picture of Helen at the Peaky Blinders BFI TV Preview held at BFI Southbank on July 23, 2019 in London, England and a picture of Damian enjoying the Peaky Blinders season five after party.

But wait, there’s more! According to Deadline, Helen’s Peaky Blinders will be trailered in movie theaters ahead of Damian’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, which releases in the UK on August 14.

Peaky will return to UK television later this year, moving from BBC Two to BBC One.

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An Actor is Always Reinventing Himself Through his Characters: An Interview with Damian Lewis – April 23, 2017

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An Actor is Always Reinventing Himself Through His Characters

by Staff | London Calling | April 23, 2017

Having ventured from the hallowed halls of England’s most historic school to the very top of transatlantic television, Damian Lewis is returning to the city – and the stage – of his youth with a starring role in Ian Rickson’s revival of the Edward Albee-penned The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.

As much as some people may find it a step too far to have a ginger James Bond, Damian Lewis has seen his name thrown into that ring many times. But while with his Old Etonian credentials it may seem like a natural fit, for the past few years the flame-haired thespian has owed his career to starring roles on the other side of the pond.

Continue reading An Actor is Always Reinventing Himself Through his Characters: An Interview with Damian Lewis – April 23, 2017