Tom Courtenay, who made his name in the 1960s in films that have become classics – The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Dr Zhivago, Billy Liar – has been enjoying a tremendous new lease of life, at the age of 78, in 45 Years, directed by Andrew Haigh and co-starring Charlotte Rampling. It is a marvellous film about the delicate equilibrium of a marriage and what happens after a letter arrives one morning, out of the blue, with news that has the power to change everything. Courtenay plays Geoff Mercer with a convincing mixture of cussedness and vulnerability (as can be seen on DVD, out now).
1 | Book
A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace
Last Christmas Day, I read this book. Harry Hill’s wife sent it me because she had over-ordered on Amazon. It is a series of essays including an account of a Caribbean tour on an American cruise ship, the Zenith, which Foster Wallace renames “the Nadir”. He is very funny – an astonishing writer. I encouraged Colin Firth to read him too. I wanted to know more. Foster Wallace was a mathematician, a philosopher, an exceptional tennis player. He had a brain the size of a house. But he hanged himself. He was taken off antidepressants – they were thought to be no good for him – they’d been keeping him going for 20 years.
2 | Film
Finola Dwyer produced it and Quartet, which I was in. I met the director, John Crowley, a theatre person, in LA. I wanted to like his film – and I liked it like hell. The acting is so good. The story is so well told. I got very upset towards the end, wondering whether Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) had done the wrong thing. I can’t talk about it to my wife, Isabel [Crossley, a stage manager] – she hasn’t seen it yet. Did it make me think about turning points in my life? One of the pleasures was it made me not think about myself. Can I also sneak in a second film? The Violators by director Helen Walsh. She is someone to watch…
3 | Hotel
Chateau Marmont, Los Angeles
We were in LA promoting 45 Years and they put us in the Chateau Marmont. It has slipped down a bit – I read that someone was murdered there. Anyway, I first stayed there in 1964. It was an apartment hotel. It has come up in the world but they have left the kitchenettes and the same old light fittings so you can turn lights on and off. Usually, when they modernise hotels, you can’t turn the lights on or off. When I was last here, I hired a Mustang. I went along the Sunset Strip looking for the place where I had hired it, but it had gone. It was nice to go back to the hotel after 50 years.
4 | Music
Roses of Picardy by Frederick Weatherly and Haydn Wood
I was at a memorial service for [actor] Richard Pasco with [baritone] Thomas Allen with whom I had performed in years past at a series of Schubert concerts up in Manchester at the Royal Exchange; I had read letters to and from Schubert and there was a string quartet. Anyway, Allen sang Roses of Picardy at Pasco’s memorial and it was just wonderful. The evening after the memorial service, I sang it all evening long but not as well as Thomas. Thomas, Tom Allen – a lovely, lovely chap. And can he sing!
5 | Restaurant
Ma Goa, London
This is our local. It’s round the corner in Upper Richmond Road. It has been there since I moved to Putney in 1981. And it has grown, it is a family concern. It is Goan food, from south-western India. Ma is no longer in the kitchen but it has grown and prospered and Dee, the son of Ma, now runs it and owns it. The food is Indian-ish. I never have anything very hot. I usually go for my chicken korma. Sometimes, Isabel looks at me and I try something else. She is more daring than me. With me, it is chicken korma because I know it won’t upset my stomach.
6 | Television
I am devoted. I was upset because little Helen was knocked out the other night. She had the most wonderful legs. It wasn’t the judges’ opinion that ousted her, it was the public’s. Women might not have appreciated her legs as much as I did. I’d sooner go to the scaffold than be on that show myself. I’m a crap dancer. I would be the first to be knocked out. I had to do a bit of dancing in 45 Years. I had a special trainer. They knew I was so worried about my dancing. Andrew [Haigh] and Charlotte [Rampling] were winding me up about it, saying: “Don’t worry, the worse you are, the better.” So I said: “Ah – pressure off then…”
7 | Sport
I had to go to the BFI recently to talk about Dr Zhivago with Rita Tushingham. And it was fortunate because that Friday Hull City, my team, were beaten by Derby County, which I would otherwise have been watching on television. Oddly enough, they got me a car back after the Q&A. The driver said: “Oh, I won’t tell you your result.” And I thought: how did he know who my team was? Well, he did. And I said: “What? Do you mean they lost?” And he said: “Yeah, I am afraid so.” And I said [he chuckles sadly]: “I was expecting it.”
