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Ray Winstone to star in Vincent
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Ray Winstone (King Arthur, Cold Mountain, Ripley’s Game, Sexy Beast) is
to star as a private investigator in new ITV1 drama series Vincent.
Winstone will play private investigator Vincent Gallagher.
Vincent is a passionate, headstrong man who sometimes forgets that
he’s running a business and not a crusade. He’s a workaholic who always
goes the extra mile. Each episode will have a self-contained story line
with the regular characters delving into the dangerous world of private
investigators and all manner of crime.
Ray’s most recent credits for ITV Granada have been Tough Love, its
sequel Lenny Blue, and the title role in Henry VIII, winner of Best
Mini Series/TV Movie at the International Emmy Awards. Other credits
include She’s Gone, which his production company Size 9 Productions
made for ITV last autumn.
Ray said: "I'm thrilled to be going back to Granada. The scripts
for Vincent are superb and working in Manchester again is an added
bonus - I'm really looking forward to it."
Former Coronation Street actress Suranne Jones will play Vincent’s work partner Beth.
Vincent is Suranne’s first leading drama role since her explosive
final scenes as Karen McDonald in Coronation Street at Christmas.
Suranne has starred in Coronation Street for four years and decided to
leave the show to explore other acting opportunities. The love triangle
storyline with Suranne’s character Karen, Steve McDonald (played by
Simon Gregson) and Tracy Barlow (played by Kate Ford) has been watched
by millions of viewers over the festive period.
Suranne said: “I’m delighted I’ve got such a great job so soon
after finishing on Coronation Street. It was a difficult decision to
leave but this is exactly what I wanted to do. The script and the cast
are fantastic. I imagined I’d be moving to London for work, so it’s an
added bonus that I’m able to stay in my home town to shoot Vincent.”
Vincent has an all star cast, including Joe Absolom (Doc Martin,
Touching Evil) as super keen junior PI Robert; Angel Coulby (A Good
Thief, The Second Coming) as office secretary Gillian; and final member
of the team John played by Ian Puleston-Davies (Wall Of Silence, My
Beautiful Son). Eva Pope (Grafters, Bad Girls) plays Vincent’s ex,
Cathy, and Philip Glenister (Calendar Girls, Hornblower) plays DCI
David Driscoll, who is Cathy’s new lover.
In episode one Marc Warren (Band Of Brothers, State Of Play) plays
Gary de Silva, who suspects his wife Sarah (played by Charlotte
Emmerson) of having an affair. In episode two, Roy Marsden guest stars
as Terry O’Connor.
Further castings include Adam Rayner, Jonathan Guy Lewis, Paul
Opacic, Michael Dixon, Julian Kay, Joseph Beattie and Emma Catherwood.
The four-part series will be filmed in Manchester from 17th January
2005. Granada is producing the series, which is written by Stephen
Butchard, who also wrote ITV1 drama Lenny Blue starring Ray.
Vincent comes from Andy Harries’ Drama Department. Sita Williams
(The Forsyte Sage, Island At War) is Executive Producer, while the
series is produced by John Rushton and directed by Peter Lydon and
Roger Gartland, the same team that brought the highly acclaimed drama
series Island At War to ITV1. Granada International holds worldwide
distribution rights.
Sita Williams said, “We are delighted that Ray will be playing the
lead role in this very exciting new series and that we have Suranne in
her first big television drama role since leaving Coronation Street.
The entire cast is fantastic and it’s great for Manchester’s reputation
as a leading film location.”
RAY WINSTONE BIOGRAPHY
RAY WINSTONE was born in Hackney in the East End of London. He
started boxing at the age of 12 and was three times London Schoolboy
champion and fought twice for England. He studied acting at the Corona
School before being cast by director Alan Clarke as Carlin (“the
Daddy”) in Scum. This BBC Play production made Winstone’s name and
since then he has appeared in numerous TV series and movies. After
playing a starring role in Franc Roddam’s Quadrophenia and being cast
by Ken Loach in Ladybird, Ladybird Gary Oldman gave Winstone the lead
role in his gritty biographical drama, Nil By Mouth. Winstone was
mesmerising as Ray, an award-winning performance that lead to a
succession of challenging roles, including Dave in the gangster movie
Face and Dad in Tim Roth’s disturbing drama, The War Zone. He also
played in the comedy drama The Mammy and Fanny & Elvis before
delivering one of the finest performances of his career opposite Ben
Kingsley in Sexy Beast.
His movies since then include There’s Only One Jimmy Grimble, Last
Orders, Ripley’s Game, Cold Mountain and most recently The Proposition
playing opposite Guy Pearce and Emily Watson. TV credits include Our
Boy (for which he earned an RST award for Best Actor), and Births,
Marriages And Deaths - both by writer Tony Grounds. |
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