Today is REG’s birthday, so some of us here at the REGiment got together and decided to send Richard postcards from each of our locations. The result is the REG Temple 2002 Birthday “Book”, which you can check out just by clicking here!

Joann has sent me an article from the Sunday Express (October 2000) which you can read here. In it Richard talks from the set of The Scarlet Pimpernel about his experiences in Hollywood.

On the subject of films, I’ve managed to find out some news on Hildegarde – A Duck Down Under.

The news is that there’s still no release date yet. I understand the film is still trying to confirm a distributor and it may be many months before we get to see it. I’ve emailed the producers of the film and I’m awaiting a reply from them.

HOWEVER!!

Having said that Hildegarde DID have it’s World Premiere at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival 2002 in February, where it was very well received. Many producers strive to hold the world premieres of their children’s films at Kinderfilmfest, so much so that it has become the most significant festival of its category worldwide.

Hildegarde also had a very limited “preview showing” at the Barbican Center in London in mid March. The Miracle Maker was another REG film that was shown, later on, in mid April.

As always we’ll keep you updated.

REG can be seen playing a bed-head in the film “Bed”, which will be on BBC Prime (UK) on Saturday 18 May at 8:20pm CET

A star cast gets into bed together for this play by Jim Cartwright that deals with insomnia, growing old and death.

A retired sea captain (Lionel Jeffries) is compelled to go into an institution. In his dreams he joins the “Sleep Club” where he finds himself in bed with all the other residents, including June Brown (“Dot Cotton” in EastEnders).

Above them all gazes the spiteful face of the Bed Head (Richard E Grant) who, driven mad by his insomnia, pours abuse on the inhabitants of the bed.

“Bed Head is the patron saint of insomnia,” explains Richard. “He embodies pure malevolence although, to be fair, if we could never go to sleep, we’d get a bit short-tempered too.”

The play is both surreal, and a meditation on growing old and dying.

Apparently Richard will co-star in a series later on this year alongside Arabella Weir of The Fast Show. Arabella will play a modern-day Fanny Craddock in a pastiche cookery programme about husband and wife TV chefs who hate each other. She’s fat and bossy. He’s gay and celibate. Doubtless, once upon a time, they had the most fabulous wedding.

I’ve just spent several hours reformatting and proof-reading a shooting script for Hudson Hawk, which I discovered a couple of weeks back. It’s an earlier version of the script, but this film had so many re-writes that it’s very difficult to know where abouts in the “process” this one is?

I can tell you that the end is an alternative one but not just a few things here and there like most alternative endings that you tend to see. This one is a totally different re-write! Amongst the changes you’ll notice that:

• Tommy mysteriously becomes “Alex”.

• Snickers reads Butterfinger’s lines in the Italian cafe.

• REG gets “sunroofed” in half by Lenin in the Kremlin.

• And Tommy (erm, “Alex”) actually dies – FINALLY!!

You can read all about it here.

There’s also a few new pages on the site that were originally off site links. The first is the “Preferred Doctor Who Poll” from www.gallifrey5.co.uk which you can now see here, and the second is the Withnail And I “mistake” page which you can now see here.

Enjoy!

There’s a few new articles on the site. The first one is courtesy of Jolie. In it Richard reveals his 5 favourite movies. You can read that one here.

The second is called “The Actor’s Cut” and it’s about a program that Richard did for the BBC in 1996. Described as a “touching, revealing and funny video diary”, Richard takes the viewer on a whistle stop tour through six months of his professional life, culminating in the ’96 Oscars. You can read that one here.

The “Cumbria On Film” page was originally just a link, but I’ve since made it a page of it’s own. You can see it here. I should probably add that the hair is a bit of a worry in that one! :-)

And finally, at the moment I’m still accepting submissions for the latest REGiment Exclusive Q&A (Number 4), so if anyone out there has a question that they desperately need answered by Richard then just email me here at The Temple!

Jolie has unearthed something quite rare and of particular interest to REG fans due to it’s age. Here’s a review of the play that earned Richard a “Best Newcomer” acting nomination way back in 1984. The play was called “Tramway Road” and there’s a small B&W picture that comes with it too. Thanks Jolie! It’s a gem!

Joann has sent me a mini-interview titled “Face The Fax”. You can read that here.