W il l Wasp e It is generally rumoured that Peter Gilmore, the
star of BBCTV's The Onedirt Line, wants to bow out of the series after the current batch of episodes is wrapped up this month.
Waspe sympathises, but hopes Gilmore knows precisely what he's doing and is not, perchance, hoping to cash in on his Onedin reputation in other directions. Television series do not make 'stars'; they make 'characters'.
Unless desperate to pursue their 'art,' actors are usually better advised to stick with the lucrative type-casting of television. Like Stratford 'Barlow' Johns. Unlike Rupert 'Maigret' Davies.
Empty house?
The early weeks of 1974 are to see many closings of West End theatre shows — and not quite as many openings.
The theatre that seems likely to be left without a show is, of all desirable houses, the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where the appalling No! No! Nanette cannot be sustained beyond this weekend. Alas, the next show positively scheduled for Drury Lane, the musical version of Billy Liar, will not be ready for a month or two, and something to fill-in for a brief season is being urgently sought.
Difficult decision?
One of the newcomers is the new Peter Nichols comedy, Chez Nous, replacing Private Lives at the Globe at the end of the month. The Nichols play stars Albert Finney, whose own management, Memorial Enterprises, will be
presenting it. •
Waspe trusts that the actor did not experience to painful a conflict of interests between : Memorial Enterprises and the Royal Court, of which Finney is an Associate Artistic Director and which would have been very happy to have staged Chez Nous.
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