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ShakespeaRe-Told
This autumn across the 91Èȱ¬
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This autumn, the 91Èȱ¬ brings Shakespeare and
his stories to audiences with a variety of new
programmes and initiatives across its
services – television, radio, online and interactive.
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Shirley Henderson plays Katherine
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Over the last few years, we've come to expect big things of petite actress Shirley Henderson and, in 91Èȱ¬ ONE's The Taming Of The Shrew, the striking Scots star does not disappoint.
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As Sally Wainwright brings the Bard's battle-of-the-sexes comedy kicking and screaming into the 21st century, Shirley unleashes a performance that really packs a punch.
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Shirley Henderson is always up for a challenge. A rich mix of roles has seen her grapple with Portuguese (Charles II), and even sport a bristling moustache (Intermission).
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But when it came to raising her voice to play sharp-tongued tyrant Katherine Minola in a modern adaptation of The Taming Of The Shrew, the softly-spoken star experienced a twinge of doubt.
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"I loved the script but I was scared of it as well, because the character just seemed so huge. I was excited by it but I was nervous of it at the same time," she says.
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"I've never played anyone who's so high-powered and able – who speaks so fluently and powerfully – and that doesn't necessarily come easily to me. Her concentration is enormous but she's also shockingly vicious, and I wasn't sure how to pull that off."
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But it wasn't long before the elfin-faced star was cranking up the volume and spouting insults that would put Anne Robinson to shame…
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"I went home and practised speaking the dialogue out loud to myself to get on top of the sound of her voice and her language. She goes from very stroppy to almost childlike very quickly, so I had to work on that. It was actually a lot of fun!" she laughs.
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Based on one of Shakespeare's feistiest heroines, Katherine is a wealthy, successful politician who has her sights set on leading her party. All that stands in her way is her foul temper, which has left her without the one thing her colleagues really want in a leader: a spouse.
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"You know it's bad when the only date in her diary reads 'Put the bins out'," chuckles Shirley, 38. "Her temper and her aggression have left her very lonely. But there is a reason for the madness and there's also a sense of humour there.
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"She's very clever and she gets frustrated easily. She gets exasperated by people – especially people like her sister and her mother, who are very shallow, very silly and always talking about clothes and men – and so she alienates them and then that makes her more lonely, more frustrated and more angry. The problem is, no one can get beyond her shell."
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But that seems set to change when Katherine meets the eccentric and passionate Petruchio (played by Rufus Sewell), who, much to her chagrin, promptly announces his intention to marry her.
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"She finally meets her match," explains Shirley. "They're both horrendous on their own but together they spark and they calm each other down, though it is a bumpy ride…"
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The actress was delighted to work with co-star Rufus Sewell again. The pair last appeared together in 91Èȱ¬ ONE's acclaimed Restoration drama Charles II, in which Rufus played the randy King and Shirley his devoutly Catholic wife.
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"We work in a similar way and we jump in at the deep end and help each other. I'm not scared to try things out in front of him and he's the same with me. He's a gorgeous, lovely man, full of life and has so much to offer – a real jack-in-a-box," says Shirley, fondly.
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The eldest of three sisters, the actress was born and raised in Kincardine, Fife. Though she realised early on that all the world's a stage, she was never big on the Bard, she says.
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"I wasn't brought up going to the theatre and so Shakespeare was really just part of English class. I did like listening to it – one of our teachers used to speak it out loud to us – but I didn't know that you got up and acted this stuff out properly. I didn't understand how exciting it could be."
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She didn't fully get to grips with Shakespeare until she enrolled at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama in the early Eighties – and even now unselfconsciously declares that she's "not the biggest fan".
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"I've done a bit of Shakespeare, not an awful lot, but I really enjoyed doing this," she says.
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"It's got the breath of Shakespeare, the same sort of spirit. You need a lot of energy behind the lines because there are huge speeches and a very demanding tempo. You've got to keep the ball up in the air and that's what my impression of Shakespeare is, too."
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Shirley, who got her TV break opposite Robert Carlyle in the 91Èȱ¬'s Highland drama Hamish Macbeth, has certainly kept the ball up in the air when it comes to her career. As well as delivering consistently strong performances on stage and television, she has appeared in some of Britain's biggest blockbusters: Trainspotting; Bridget Jones's Diary, in which she plays Renée Zellweger's mate, Jude; and the Harry Potter films, which saw her give spirited performances as grumpy ghost Moaning Myrtle.
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The actress – who still lives close to her childhood home in Scotland – will be back on the big screen this autumn in the much-anticipated A Cock And Bull Story, directed by Michael Winterbottom.
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She'll also pop up in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, with Kirsten Dunst in the title role, due for release in 2006.
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"It's not a big part but I play one of the princess's aunts, a very bitchy and slightly desperate woman. She's only in her thirties but, in the 18th century, that was it – you were classed as over the hill! On the first day of filming I couldn't work out why I was wearing a grey wig … and then it clicked," laughs Shirley.
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And while we're on the subject of slightly desperate thirty-something singletons, she's also keeping an eye on the latest antics of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones, who recently relaunched her diary in The Independent.
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"Sally [Phillips], James [Callis] and I had so much fun making those films – though most of it ended up on the cutting-room floor. We were just like a wee team of pals when we were together," she smiles.
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"Ooh but wouldn't it be nice if they made the trilogy..?"
If it means we get to see even more of Shirley on the screen, there's only one answer to that: in Ms Jones's immortal words, it would be v. v. good.
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