Edward-Bennett.com

95 screencaps from Monday’s episode of ‘Doctors’ have now been added to the gallery. Click here to view the album.

Filming for Hamlet has begun, and there are several ways you can keep up to date with what’s going on.

Production company Illuminations have a blog in which they’re keeping track of the filming as well as the origins of the project.

The RSC have a Twitter feed which may be updated by Keith Osborne (the player queen), Sam Alexander (Rosencrantz) and Tom Davey (Guildenstern).

You can reply to the RSC feed by signing up for your own Twitter account, and the Illuminations blog is somewhat interactive – leading to a rather interesting note in the main blog the next day:

Musetta’s comment made me think too, referring to what happened when Hamlet’s understudy stepped up to take the role during the London run.

Wouldn’t it be nice if they filmed a few scenes with Edward Bennett as Hamlet just for the DVD extras? He was more than equal to the task and I’d love to have at least a fraction of his performance preserved along with the rest of this production.

Rehearsals have begun for the version of ‘Hamlet’ due to be televised by BBC Two later this year. The cast got back together on Monday to read through the script again before filming begins this month.

A DVD release is planned for after broadcast.

Yesterday Ed featured in an episode of the BBC daytime drama ‘Doctors’ as the slimy son-in-law of the friend of main character Cherry.

You can catch up on BBC iPlayer until 6:29pm on Monday 8th June 2009, and the episode is also available to download for a limited time as well as in HD.

The Telegraph report today that the recent RSC production of Hamlet is to be filmed, produced by BBC Two.

BBC Two controller Janice Hadlow said the 180-minute screen production of Hamlet was “a wonderful opportunity… to bring one of the great stage successes of last year to a wider audience”.

David Tennant will be returning to the role of Hamlet, with Ed as Laertes and Patrick Stewart as Claudius.

Read the Telegraph article here.

‘The Great Trip’, part of BBC Radio 3’s Mendelssohn weekend, in which Ed read letters from the composer’s travels, is now available on BBC iPlayer.

Click the link below to listen.

Mendelssohn Weekend: The Great Trip

Welcome to the new-look Edward-Bennett.com

Changes have been made which will allow you to subscribe to new news items, comment on recent posts, and generally get around the site more easily.

Because the site has also changed massively in the way that it works, there may be a few broken links or images for a short while. If you find any, you can report them to admin@edward-bennett.com

Enjoy the new look site!

Ed has received 2nd place at the Ian Charleson Awards, held today at the National Theatre. He received the award for his roles in Hamlet and Love’s Labour’s Lost.

He was beaten to the top by Tom Burke for his role as Adolph in Creditors at the Donmar Warehouse, and Mariah Gale, his co-star in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet and Love’s Labour’s Lost received a special commendation. Read the full list here.

Congratulations to Ed and to all the others who received awards today.

Saturday 9 May
10.20-11.30pm BBC RADIO 3
Mendelssohn Weekend: The Great Trip In Words And Music

Mendelssohn’s “Great Trip” – between 1829 and 1832 – was the longest recorded continuous journey undertaken by any known musician of the period. Edward Bennett reads the colourful letters the composer wrote on his European travels.

Mendelssohn’s trip spanned England and Scotland and the cities of Vienna, Rome, Paris and the Swiss Alps. His travels concluded in London, a city where Mendelssohn felt particularly at home. Throughout the trip, Mendelssohn wrote letters to his family about his impressions of the landscape, culture and customs of different countries.

Highlights include travelling down the Danube by boat and joining in the celebrations for the crowning of the King of Hungary in Pressburg. In London, his final destination, he is overwhelmed by the enthusiastic reception from audiences.

Edward has been nominated for an Ian Charleson award for his work with the RSC in 2008/9. The awards, sponsored by the National Theatre and The Sunday Times, are for actors under 30 appearing in plays written before 1918.

He faces competition from a number of his co-actors from the year, and the full nomination list is as follows: Charles Aitken (Othello, Frantic Assembly), David Ajala (A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet, RSC), Hayley Atwell (Major Barbara, NT), Edward Bennett (Hamlet and Love’s Labours Lost, RSC), Tom Burke (Creditors, Donmar), Beth Cooke (Three Sisters, Royal Exchange, Manchester), Tom Davey (Hamlet, RSC), Natalie Dew (Twelfth Night, Regent’s Park), Ryan Gage (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, RSC), Mariah Gale (Hamlet, RSC), John Heffernan (Major Barbara, NT), Tom Hiddleston (Ivanov, Donmar), Gwilym Lee (Oedipus, NT), Oliver Le Sueur (Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew,Tobacco Factory, Bristol), Andrea Riseborough (Ivanov, Donmar), Ella Smith (Love’s Labours Lost, Rose, Kingston) and Alex Waldmann (Hamlet, RSC).

The awards will be held on the 8th of May at the National Theatre on the South Bank. Good luck Ed!

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A page has now been added for Hay Fever which is still running at the Chichester Festival Theatre, and rehearsal and production images have been added to the gallery.