The actor Sope Dirisu is right at the centre of the bone-crunching action in television thriller Gangs Of London, in which he’s shot at, stabbed — and stomped on, just for good measure.
The nine-part crime series has become one of Sky’s biggest hits. Shown at the height of the virus shutdown, it features Dirisu as Elliot Finch, a mysterious newcomer who impresses damaged kingpin Sean Wallace (Joe Cole) with a display of lethal ingenuity during a violent confrontation with a group of tough guys in a pub.
It’s one of several spectacular fight scenes he’s involved in, and he attributed their power to the skills of the show’s ace stunt co-ordinator, Jude Poyer, and his team.
Packing a punch: Sope Dirisu in Gangs Of London. The sequences, influenced by martial arts films, are some of the best ever shot for the small screen (indeed, some viewers complained it looked too gruesome)
To ensure he was right for the role they put him through a fight test before they cast him.
The 29-year-old said he walked into a room and found ‘a bunch of stuntmen sitting around looking like they were going to beat me up’.
‘Thankfully, it wasn’t that,’ he laughed. ‘They gave me a little fight, to see if I could follow directions, and they wanted to see how I looked doing the movements.’ It was important that brawling looked like second nature to Finch.
The sequences, influenced by martial arts films, are some of the best ever shot for the small screen (indeed, some viewers complained it looked too gruesome). This is a drama where rivals don’t shake hands: they chop them off.
Dirisu’s physicality is one of his trademarks — but for Gangs Of London, a physique like Chris Hemsworth or Michael B. Jordan was not required because Elliot ‘isn’t a superhero’
(He was Coriolanus (above) for the Royal Shakespeare Company; and Biff Loman in Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell’s searing version of Arthur Miller’s Death Of A Salesman.)
Dirisu played American football at school and at college, where he read economics.
‘I’ve definitely got a robustness to my body,’ he boasted down the line from Luton, where he has been isolating with his parents and younger sister.
He had a video chat once with Pete Carroll, the legendary American football coach of the Seattle Seahawks.
‘He told me one of the keys to success in all contact sports is to have a reckless abandon for your body. It’s about the willingness to go over and above the call of duty,’ said the actor, who has appeared in Humans and Undercover on TV and several plays in London.
(He was Coriolanus for the Royal Shakespeare Company; and Biff Loman in Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell’s searing version of Arthur Miller’s Death Of A Salesman.)
He sings well, too, as he proved in One Night In Miami at the Donmar Warehouse.
He is pictured above starring in TV Programme The Mill as Peter. Dirisu played American football at school and at college, where he read economics
The actor Sope Dirisu is right at the centre of the bone-crunching action in television thriller Gangs Of London, in which he’s shot at, stabbed — and stomped on, just for good measure
Dirisu’s physicality is one of his trademarks — but for Gangs Of London, a physique like Chris Hemsworth or Michael B. Jordan was not required because Elliot ‘isn’t a superhero’. Dirisu’s dad is a massive movie fan and took him to all the big action films, starring the likes of Tom Cruise and Jackie Chan, when he was growing up.
He joked that when his family binged on Gangs Of London his mother didn’t bat an eyelid as she watched her son being pummelled to a pulp. ‘Yeah, why wasn’t she more scared for me?!’ he said, laughing.
Thanks to the success of Gangs Of London a second season has been promised — and Dirisu has also been added to Ladbrokes’ list of favourites to take over from Daniel Craig as 007.
I think he’d be absolutely cracking as Ian Fleming’s super-physical secret agent.
Kinks star has no room for Zoom!
John Dagleish, who won awards for his brilliant performance as The Kinks frontman Ray Davies in Sunny Afternoon, will perform his own new song — plus something by the band
A group of West End actors are working on a new show that won’t be streamed on Zoom but will be performed live in a theatre — once they have reopened.
The company of nine have signed up for a one-off special concert during which they will each perform one number they have written during lockdown, plus another that they’re associated with.
John Dagleish, who won awards for his brilliant performance as The Kinks frontman Ray Davies in Sunny Afternoon, will perform his own new song — plus something by the band.
The project’s called Newfound Hope Songs and it has been assured of a theatre in a central location on a Sunday night once the West End has reopened; whether that be later this year or early in 2021.
It’s clear that theatre will be one of the last industries allowed out of lockdown. Industry leaders such as Sonia Friedman, Vicky Featherstone, Nica Burns, Howard Panter and Rob Hastie have sounded the rallying cry for government to help save the theatre arts.
Ministers had better hurry up, though, because no one wants to witness further damage to culture in the country that gave us Shakespeare.
Producer Adam Blanshay has assembled an initial troupe of nine performers. In addition to Dagleish, they include Shan Ako, Kerry Ellis, David Hunter, Cassidy Janson, Rachel John, Lucie Jones and Jodie Steele.
‘They’ve each written music and lyrics to one song,’ says Blanshay. It will not be an entirely Zoom-free zone, though, since a little footage of the actors on the video conferencing site during lockdown would be shown in Newfound Hope Songs. ‘But the rest of it will be live, from a stage,’ he insists.
Actors Shan Ako and David Hunter are pictured left and right. The project’s called Newfound Hope Songs and it has been assured of a theatre in a central location on a Sunday night once the West End has reopened; whether that be later this year or early in 2021
Funds raised from the one-night-only concert will go to the NHS Charities Together, and to the actors. Blanshay said the split would be ‘50-50’.
Musical director Matthew Brind will be working with the actors to ensure that there’s an eclectic arrangement of songs.
I do know the name of the famous theatre, which usually houses musicals, where the show will take place. But I have been asked not to mention it here until a definitive date has been set.
Sign up at the NHSongs section at adamblanshay.com.
Andra Day stars as Billie Holiday in director Lee Daniels’ film The United States vs. Billie Holiday. I’m hearing that Day is unbelievable as the haunted legend
Watch out for…
Andra Day, who stars as Billie Holiday in director Lee Daniels’ film The United States vs. Billie Holiday.
I’m hearing that Day is unbelievable as the haunted legend.
‘It’s the birth of a new star,’ a mate of mine who saw the picture told me. Suzan-Lori Parks adapted Johann Hari’s book Chasing The Scream: The First And Last Days Of The War On Drugs.
Parks’s screenplay zeroes in on how the Federal Bureau of Narcotics launched an undercover sting operation against Holiday.
An African-American agent infiltrated the singer’s inner circle — and wound up having a passionate affair with her.
Daniels, who made the film Precious and created the TV show Empire, cast Trevante Rhodes, so good in Barry Jenkins’s Oscar-winning Moonlight, as Jimmy Fletcher, the bureau’s snoop.
Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope have written a screenplay about Philippa Langley, the woman who discovered the remains of Richard III under a car park in Leicester in 2012. Langley is secretary of the Scottish branch of the Richard III Society. The film’s being developed by Pathe UK for Stephen Frears to direct.