Interviews with Ian
There are a number of interviews out there that Ian has done over the years. Below are links/transcripts of just a few. Please scroll down for Coronation Street articles.
PUBLICITY INTERVIEWS
*IAN PLAYS JOE IN CONVICTION (2004) - BBC Website*
*IAN PLAYS JOE IN CONVICTION (2004) - The Stage*
*IAN PLAYS SHIRLEY WOOLF IN FUNLAND (2005) - BBC Website*
*Ian's character profile for Waterloo Road*
*Theatre review of "Everybody Loves A Winner" - The Guardian 12/7/09*
*Ian talks about playing Jimmy Kerrigan in "Midnight Man"*
Ian Puleston-Davies plays a tough talking tabloid newspaper editor who tips off journalist Max Raban about a story which has potentially lethal implications in Midnight Man.
“As an editor of a tabloid newspaper Jimmy employs Max to root through bins of rubbish for any scandal or any hot story that might be found through the rummaging.
“Jimmy and Max were mates at university. They both moved into journalism, but Jimmy worked his way up to become the editor, and is now in a position where he’s giving Max work. There was a certain amount of rivalry between the two, but Jimmy came out on top, and Max has been left among the bins.
“However, unbeknown to Max, Jimmy has never forgiven Max for his betrayal of a mutual friend, Helen, by naming her as a source for a story he wrote, which led to her tragic death.
“On the surface they have an amicable relationship. Max is reluctantly grateful for the work that Jimmy doles out to him. Jimmy is very much aware that Max is very useful, and very good at raking the bins.
Jimmy tips Max off about a story involving a government minister and an erotic dancer. This leads him to uncover a much bigger scoop about a terrifying conspiracy reaching the highest echelons of power.
Ian says the drama shows how powerful the press can be in exposing the terrifying truth of what is really happening in the world’s leading institutions.
“I am of a generation, probably the last generation that did believe that the Government never told lies. The generation below me are completely understandably and rightly sceptical and untrusting of the government. Everyone has a right to whistle blow. I think the press has a right to whistle blow.
“If this script had come along as recently as five years ago we would probably have thought it was fairy tale stuff; make believe. But we are now prepared to believe a story like this, which not so long ago would have been taken as pure fantasy and a good thriller.
“Not so long ago conspiracy theorists were just labelled as being fantasists. But in a very short amount of time we can now believe because conspiracy theories have come true.
“I think we are becoming a lot more aware, because of the advent of the internet. The amount of knowledge we gain at the press of a button we are able to uncover information at a quicker pace and we are all a lot more alert to theories.”
Ian has his own experiences of aspects of his personal life being revealed in the press when he made the drama Dirty Filthy Love for ITV. The drama was based on his battle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Tourette’s Syndrome.
“I put myself on the line when I came out as a sufferer of OCD and Tourette's.
“It was the first time I had ever talked about me. I wasn’t hiding behind a character and that was a bit nerve wracking to think I had no costume or programme to hide behind.
“It was unnerving that it was me talking about a person who suffers from a mental illness. That was a double whammy for me. I felt incredibly vulnerable because I thought I am talking to the press for the first time not about the role, but about me and about me with a mental illness.
“I didn’t want people to think I was using my illness to get publicity. I thought I should not be selfish, and that I should think this film might actually help people who are fellow sufferers.
“It was a cathartic experience, coming out like that, and I felt for the first time that I wasn’t ashamed of it any more. It is known as the secretive disorder because people keep it a secret, partly because they don’t know what they are suffering from and partly because they are ashamed of it.
“People’s perception of me didn’t change as a result. You do think if you have a mental illness that people are going to run away. But people are bigger than that and more caring. No-one said they didn’t want to hang out with me any more.”
Dirty Filthy Love was critically acclaimed and encouraged Ian to devote more time to writing, while continuing to act.
“I had put the idea of a writing career to bed in the 1970s. I failed academically and I believe that tainted my personal belief in my ability to write. I left school with one ‘O’ level. I felt inferior and felt I wasn’t capable of writing. Thank god I overcame that in later years.
“The writing is as busy as the acting. I couldn’t do one without the other now. It is a good balance they look after each other really.
The press pack for Midnight Man can be downloaded HERE.
*Ian talks about playing Paul in "The Children"*
As the proud father of a baby girl, Ian Puleston-Davies says he could understand the pressures and dilemmas faced by every parent in The Children.
He plays the role of Paul, a gregarious radio presenter whose little girl, Emily, is found dead in suspicious circumstances.
“The catastrophe that happens in this story is every parent’s worst nightmare. We all think we are good parents, and that self obsession with being a good parent can ironically go against the well being of a child,” says Ian.
“Paul is a good dad to Emily, but he has his head in the clouds. He has the added pressure of a new baby and a new life with his girlfriend after breaking up with Emily’s mother. There is a complete explosion of interests.
“Being a parent made me understand Paul’s failings and successes as a parent. If I had not had my daughter Maggie I wouldn’t have had as much insight into the character.
“In the 18 months Maggie has been around it has made me realise my selfishness at the times I thought I was being selfless.”
Ian says he was attracted to the role because he wanted to explore what provokes someone to kill a child.
“We read daily about children being mistreated and killed, and I always have had a knee jerk reaction of immediate condemnation. But there are excuses and reasons. In no way am I condoning it. I just wanted to understand it.
Ian admits that his reaction to child murder is much more acute now he has a daughter of his own.
“I have always been able to condemn a person who kills a child, but what I am able to feel now since being a dad is the pain that the sufferers must go through. That upsets me enormously.
“This is not a drama about Ian Brady or Myra Hindley. You think they are a million miles from me. But what is brilliant about this drama is that it really gets under your skin, and makes you feel threatened that you could quite conceivably go quite far down that journey. When you see the arguments, they are so dangerously close to what any of us are capable of".
The press pack for The Children can be downloaded HERE.
*Ian talks about playing Beryl in "Clash of the Santas"*
Ian Puleston Davies teams up with TV favourites Robson Green and Mark Benton in Clash of the Santas on ITV, a comic romp about a Santa Claus competition in Lithuania.
Flint-born Ian plays over-the top Welsh entrant Beryl. “Why he’s called Beryl , heaven knows. It’s a wimpy name, but my Beryl is no wimp. He’s a hot-blooded male, flying the flag for Wales in more ways than one,” laughed Ian.
“It’s really funny, even the cast were giggling at the screening.”
Though a native of Flintshire, Ian struggled with the Welsh accent. “I had to concentrate. I’m Welsh, but without a strong accent. When I ‘do Welsh’ I tend to go more south Walian than north. My natural accent has more of a Scouse twang than anything.”
Ian, 50, has just moved to Hoole, Chester, with partner Sue and their daughter Maggie, two, after several years living in London. “It’s great to be back up here, it’s a much better place to bring up Maggie. Also a lot of my work is in Manchester, so it’s handy.”
Originally from a farming family, Ian went into acting straight from college.
As a teenager he was in the youth theatre at Mold’s Clwyd Theatr Cymru and later went to London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, in the same era as Ruthin-born Rhys Ifans and James Bond actor Daniel Craig.
His early work was in theatre, doing rep for 10 years, before he joined Hollyoaks for a year. “TV is very different to stage work. Hollyoaks taught me a lot, it was a real apprenticeship,” he said.
He’s since appeared in Hustle, Life on Mars, Daziel and Pascoe, Silent Witness and this year with Kevin Whately in hard-hitting drama The Children. He also played Tess’ father in the acclaimed BBC adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Ubervilles.
While on our screens a lot in 2008, over the past couple of months he’s had no jobs in the pipeline. “Nothing is guaranteed in acting, but this was a bit of a wake up call. I’d no idea what I was going to do next until a week ago, when I got a part for new year.”
He will appear in the new series of Jimmy McGovern’s The Street.
A respected writer – Ian co-wrote award winning drama Dirty Filthy Love, about dealing with obsessive compulsive disorder – he is also working on two scripts, one about recovering alcoholics, the other about a transvestite Welsh farmer.
“I enjoy writing about the fringes of life, people who struggle. But they’re not all grim. it’s important to have laughs, even black times contain a spark of humour.”
The press pack for Clash of the Santas can be downloaded HERE.
IAN'S PERSONAL INTERVIEWS
*DEFEATING THE DEMONS: Ian discusses his experiences of OCD - The Telegraph, 20/9/04*
*GOOD SIDE OF BAD: Ian talks about how he has turned personal trauma into acting triumph - The Free Library, October 2005*
*LOOKING FEAR IN THE FACE: Ian talks about his battle with OCD - The Times, 29/05/05*
*THE PLEASURES OF BEING A GUEST ACTOR (2007) - Guardian Unlimited*
*New Corrie star Ian Puleston-Davies describes his struggle with OCD - The Mirror - 23/7/10
*Ian talks about his childhood in Flint - The Flintshire Chronicle - 29/7/10*
*Ian is made the first patron of CALM Centre*
Local Harlow based Charity the CALM Centre, (the Counselling and Life Management Centre), has kicked off its 21st Anniversary celebrations by appointing its first official Patron.The CALM Centre, (formerly Harlow Well Woman), offers high quality, accessible and confidential counselling services to adult men and women living in Harlow and its environs.
Well known actor and award winning screenwriter, Ian Puleston-Davies has become CALM’s first official patron. Ian, who has appeared in film and on television, including the Guy Ritchie Film Revolver, and TV dramas Vincent, Conviction, Funland, Waking the Dead, Ghostship, Tess of the d’Urbevilles, Hustle and more recently, Midnight Man, The Street and Desperate Romantics, has had personal experience of services similar to those offered by the CALM Centre.
Ian said “I was delighted and flattered to be asked to become a patron of such a worthy charity. My personal struggles with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, (OCD), have been well documented in the media and before I was diagnosed, I thought I was going mad. However, I now have a range of tools to cope, including services similar to those the CALM Centre offers to their local community and I am therefore very happy to be an ambassador for them.”
Puleston-Davies, together with his writing partner Jeff Pope, wrote the award winning and BAFTA nominated TV Drama Dirty Filthy Love, starring Michael Sheen, a semi-autobiographical piece about a man’s struggles with OCD and Tourettes Syndrome.
The CALM Centre was founded, (originally as the Harlow Well Woman Centre), in 1988 and in 2003 was a recipient of the coveted Queens Golden Jubilee Award for voluntary service.
*John Prior (MBE) looks back over his 25 year in acting*
(This is only a selection)
Theatre Work: 1990/91
MEMORABLE EVENT:
CORONATION STREET ARTICLES
The Flintshire Chronicle
The Metro
BBC Website
Holy Soap
*Ian is interviewed for Ian Wylie's first Coronation Street Podcast*
bravenet.com