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Gunpowder, Treason and Plot - James the First of England Category : TV Drama Date : 27.02.2004 Printable version

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It was over a decade ago that director Antonia Bird pronounced Carlyle a unique talent during the making of her seminal 91Èȱ¬ TWO film Safe, about young homeless people on Britain's streets.

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Her prediction about the charismatic Glaswegian actor was prophetic and Carlyle's mesmerising ability to inhabit complicated, visceral outsiders has become legendary. Many call him the Scottish De Niro.

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A dominating presence on film and television, Carlyle has consistently dazed and frightened audiences with his brutally honest portrayals of characters distorted by rage and pain.

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Famously, as Begbie in Danny Boyle's groundbreaking film Trainspotting, and as a recovering Hillsborough victim in Jimmy McGovern's acclaimed series Cracker.

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Yet this slight, down to earth Scot, who does not embrace luvviedom or take compliments easily, has shown himself equally convincing as Gaz, the jobless father who is devoted to his son in The Full Monty, or as the eponymous Hamish Macbeth, the laid back dope-smoking policeman in the quirky 91Èȱ¬ series.

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The actor recently reflected that we tend to remember the darker characters in films the most, and often they are more challenging to play.

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This comment immediately brings to mind Carlyle's alcoholic father in Angela's Ashes; Rénard, the James Bond villain in The World Is Not Enough; and, the gruesome, blood-soaked cannibal in Ravenous.

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Now he takes on the mantle of an historical figure living some 400 years ago.

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Amongst historians, the only consensus of opinion about James VI of Scotland and 1st of England, is that he was highly intelligent and very unpopular.

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For Safe, Carlyle went method and slept rough; so where does he start with this challenge?

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"Research is still where it starts for me, for any part," says Carlyle.

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"I spoke to four historians in Scotland and read a couple of books about the period, but the picture just got muddier and muddier.

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"There didn't seem to be a particular line and there seemed to be gaps - almost, like you go from Elizabeth I straight into Charles II.

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"In the end I felt, 'Well I can't get too bogged down with historical accuracy or inaccuracy because either way could have been right or wrong.' I'm an actor, not an academic.

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"What I do know is Jimmy McGovern and his writing. He's a passionate and honest dramatist who writes from the heart," says frequent collaborator Carlyle.

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"Jimmy's read everything he can about the Stuarts and unlike some Victorian scholars he doesn't try to clean up history. He's not one for sanitising people's lives.

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"Jimmy writes about people in their many forms. He has a remarkable way of getting under the skin of his characters and shows things about them from all different directions - no person is 100% bad or 100% good - that's what makes his work so interesting to play and his characters so believable."

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Ultimately, says Carlyle, capturing the spirit of the times and understanding what drives people is what actors bring to screen storytelling.

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"What Jimmy and Gillies MacKinnon, who I rate as one of the all time great directors, are not afraid to show is these were brutal times and life was incredibly cheap.

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"It doesn't take a history book to tell you that. You can see it. Life was very, very, tough, very hard for these people."

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Carlyle warms to his next theme: exploring the psychology and inner world of his character.

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"When the audience meets James in our story it's clear that his detachment from his mother at a really early age has deeply affected him, and he's been carrying this tremendous pain around for a long, long time - his whole life in fact.

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"James believes what he's been told: that his mother abandoned him and was a whore.

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"His father, Darnley, was murdered and it's been said his mother had a hand in his death. Enough to f*** your head up."

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In this dark, dangerous world of treachery and betrayal Carlyle says that the only absolute certainty James has is "his God-given right to be king and his right to secure the English throne. He's been told this is his destiny since birth."

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Carlyle explains that James' pragmatic, manipulative intelligence is shown when he makes his pact with Cecil and becomes complicit in his mother's execution.

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"His fate is sealed at this point. James believes it was his mother's purpose to bring him into the world so that he can unite the kingdoms of Scotland and England, and now it's his destiny to continue the lineage. There is no way of escaping it."

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After this act of matricide, James' descent into evil feels almost Shakespearean. James is seduced by power.

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Carlyle summaries: "I'm speculating now and it's impossible to know exactly what was in James' head, but I think his overall ambition was to win. To be the top man."

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"It's a fascinating telling of his life," reflects Carlyle.

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"We get different insights into him. We see his unbelievable ruthless cunning and intelligence, yet we also see that he has leanings, like his mother before him, towards unification and tolerance."

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This gentler, conciliatory streak can be seen in James I's legacy of the Authorised Version of The Bible (1611), which aimed to serve Anglicans, Puritans and Catholics.

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"James was educated by the finest scholars in Scotland and culturally and politically he's quite tough to match.

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"Elizabeth I was seriously canny, but James obviously had something about him, that put him ahead of everyone else.

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"He was a deep thinker and I try to show that this guy's always thinking. My hunch is that not much got past James.

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"But like all of us, he has weaknesses and I give him a dangerous Achilles Heel: panic. He panics too quickly and too often."

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Carlyle acknowledges there is no real consensus among historians about James' I range of physical disfigurements.

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He felt that all he needed to develop was a simple device to show his monarch's isolation from other people.

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"I went for a fault in his left side all the way down. I thought he needs something simple to mark him out.

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"In those times people would not look kindly upon, and I am emphasising the inverted commas here, 'cripples'; especially in a king.

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"Playing a guy like James, he had to watch his back all the time.

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"From the point we meet him there are political forces bearing down on him, and we see how he deals with these life-threatening intrigues and stays on top.

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"His is a raw, bloody story and I tried to get into his mania to win and keep winning."

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There is a final irony, says Carlyle: "James did secure the Stuart dynasty as well as a personal fortune, but it left him morally bankrupt. And then, a generation later, Charles came along and lost everything - including his head."

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Currently, Carlyle has moved on to tackle a very different role and is filming a whimsical American feature in Los Angeles, Marlin Hodge's Dance School.

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Then his first priority is to get home to be with his wife, Anastasia, for the birth of their second child.

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