Kenneth Branagh

Sir Kenneth Branagh, a face and name known to most.  He’s won awards for his acting as well as his directing.  Now - with a film loosely based on his own upbringing in Belfast, he’s topping this year’s award nominations for his writing and directing.  

This shoot with Kenneth was done at the House of St Barnabas in central London.  Sir Kenneth turned out to be the real gentleman I was hoping he was.  Genuine, interesting, with a quiet and gentle demeanour.  It became evident to me that this film was truly something special to him. The way he was talking about the film and the way he talked about finding someone to play himself it felt like he had put his hart and soul into it.  Now that the awards season in upon us it is great to see that a film with such personal meaning from a director such as Kenneth has made it to the top of the nomination bill.  

Shot for Sunday Times Culture

John Bercow

It’s not long since I stopped categorising my newsletters.  One of the reasons I stopped was that some shoots just didn’t fit into my most common subject matter, and therefore got left behind.  For example, I sat on a folder with politicians and topical/political journalists without ever sharing these.  John Bercow was one of those shoots - shot a few months before the Covid pandemic came and changed the world forever.

John Bercow, aka “ORDER!!!!!” - made the ‘Speaker of the house’ into something more than just an orchestrator, keeping order in the houses of parliament during debate.  Bercow became the man who shouted “ORDER! ORDER!” as front bench politicians squabbled and argued like children.  He was the one who was able to control the politicians when they were not able to control themselves.  And let’s face it, that was a regular reoccurrence.  John Bercow became the face of sanity in parliament, a man who took the anonymous roll of “speaker” and made it into something else.  This shoot was completed earlier this year and John was modest when I mentioned his achievements, and nice to work with.  He seemed at times to be the only politician who could see the houses of parliament for what it is, and the politicians for how they come across to the average man in the street - as they argue and bicker like school children.  

Shot for Observer New Review