ITV.com – 20th April, 2015

Jekyll and Hyde – Tom Bateman, Richard E Grant, Natalie Gumede and acclaimed writer Charlie Higson to attend Comic Con.

Jekyll and Hyde writer, star of The Fast Show and celebrated novelist, Charlie Higson (Young Bond, The Enemy) and stars of the new drama Tom Bateman (Da Vinci’s Demons, The Tunnel), Richard E Grant (Doctor Who, Downton Abbey) and Natalie Gumede (Doctor Who, Coronation Street) will attend MCM London Comic Con on Saturday 23 May 2015, appearing in an exclusive panel session to discuss the production of Jekyll and Hyde.

The panel will be joined by ITV Studios Director of Drama Francis Hopkinson (Lucan, Wallander, DCI Banks) who is Executive Producer of Jekyll and Hyde and Series Producer Foz Allan (Wolfblood, The Dumping Ground, Robin Hood). Boyd Hilton, TV Editor of Heat Magazine, will moderate.

From an idea conceived by Charlie Higson, the ten-part, action adventure series has been inspired by The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Higson has written and executive produces Jekyll and Hyde which exudes mystery, fantasy, horror and sci-fi.

Tom Bateman takes the lead role as Robert Jekyll, Richard E Grant plays Bulstrode who heads the secret government department MI0 known as ‘The Invisible Men’ and Natalie Gumede takes the part of Bella who forms part of a love triangle with Robert.

Set in 1930’s London at a time of Hollywood glamour, aerodynamic cars and monster movies, the drama pays homage to the Stevenson novel, and focuses on the young, attractive, troubled hero, Robert Jekyll, the grandson of the original doctor.
At the heart of the drama is Robert Jekyll’s quest to discover his real identity, his true family history and the nature of his ‘curse’. Jekyll transforms into superhero Hyde in moments of extreme anger, stress and when his or the lives of others are threatened.

In the opening episode Jekyll is a newly qualified doctor living with his foster parents in Ceylon. He knows nothing of his family history or his inherited condition, which his foster father, Dr Vishal Najaran, is controlling with medication. The drama follows his path to discovery, which coincides with the transformative powers of his condition growing stronger and more disruptive. His journey will take him into a dark and unforgiving place, as his alter ego seems capable of anything. At the same time there are shadowy forces trying to find Jekyll and the source of his powers.

Manchester Evening News – 18th April, 2015

The Withnail and I star was at the department store to show off his latest scene Jack Covent Garden.

Richard E Grant launches his fragrance Jack Covent Garden at Selfridges, Exchange Square. Photo: Sean Hansford

By Emily Heward

Film star Richard E Grant was in Manchester today to launch his new fragrance at Selfridges.

The Withnail and I actor may seem an unlikely candidate for a celebrity parfumier – but one whiff of his latest scent, Jack Covent Garden, at the luxury department store in Exchange Square and it’s clear this is no vanity project.

Cutting a dapper figure in a Union Jack blazer, the 57-year-old’s passion for his patriotic perfume came across as he chatted animatedly about the inspiration behind it – the fruit, flower and vegetable market that used to be at the heart of London’s theatreland.

The unisex scent also nods to the area’s theatrical history, from the flower-seller character Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady to Nell Gwyn, the real-life orange-seller turned Restoration actress and mistress of King Charles II.

Richard, who worked as a waiter in the area after moving to London from Swaziland, where he was born, said: “When I was thinking of creating a second fragrance I wanted it to be based around the history and my experience of Covent Garden.

“Oranges, roses and ginger were the three key ingredients I thought of, because on opening nights actors are very often given fruit and flowers and will use ginger to clear their throats.”

Photo: Sean Hansford

While other stars are content to merely lend their name to a fragrance, it has been a labour of love for Richard, who has not only bankrolled it but spent time sampling oils in the world’s perfume capital Grasse, on the French Riveria, before working with expert ‘nose’ Alienor Massenet in Paris to develop it.

The end result smells fittingly fresh, with top notes of orange, lime and ginger layered over middle notes of rose, pimento and peppercorn and base notes of carrot oil, iris and musk.

Richard’s first perfume, Jack, hit the shelves – and the headlines, for having marijuana notes – last year. But his first foray into fragrance came, he says, when he was just a child.

The self-confessed ‘compulsive smeller’ said: “I had a huge crush on somebody when I was 11 and three quarters in Swaziland and I couldn’t afford to buy her perfume with my pocket money.

“So I went and collected some gardenia and rose petals which I boiled in sugar water and put them in jam jars and buried them in the ground for two weeks. Of course, they were stink bombs.”

Photo: Sean Hansford

It was handbag designer Anya Hindmarch that convinced him to give perfumery a proper go when she caught him with his nose buried in some blooms on holiday.

And he’s never looked back, with Jack already a best-seller and a third fragrance now in the pipeline.

Richard, who is currently appearing in US TV series Dig and filming forthcoming ITV drama Jekyll and Hyde, said: “I’m just very grateful it has worked out.”

Jack Covent Garden is available exclusively at Selfridges.

The Irish Times – 18th April, 2015

We all love Richard E Grant in his classic role of the acerbic, alcoholic, unemployed actor Withnail. Now the Swaziland-born movie star has reinvented himself as a hit perfumer – without giving up the day job

Richard E Grant: “There are 1,100 perfumes released every year. It’s like a 57-year-old man saying, ‘Right. I’m now going to release a pop record.’ You don’t stand a chance in hell. But here I am”

Richard E Grant has appeared in everything from Gosford Park to Doctor Who, from Bram Stoker’s Dracula to Downton Abbey. He has even made a wildlife series, The Seven Deadly Sins, for the Discovery channel.

For many of us, however, Grant is still synonymous with the ramshackle anti- hero of the 1987 cult comedy Withnail & I – especially the scene in which an inebriated Withnail scandalises a quaint country tearoom by thumping the table and delivering the immortal line, “We want the finest wines available to humanity, and we want them here, and we want them now”.

These days Grant is a purveyor, not of fine wines, but of upmarket scents. His first fragrance, Jack, notched up a major success when it was released a year ago at Liberty’s of London, Next week he will be in Dublin’s Brown Thomas to launch his follow-up product, Jack Covent Garden. And he is already working on fragrance number three, which will be released next spring.

“We were in profit after six months,” Grant says. “Jack became Liberty’s third best-seller, despite heavy competition from all the well-known brands that they stock. They were amazed. I was absolutely flabbergasted.

“There are 1,100 perfumes released every year,” he adds. “It’s like a 57-year-old man saying, ‘Right. I’m now going to release a pop record’. You don’t stand a chance in hell. But here I am.”

Self-financed passion
The switch from player to perfumier is, Grant insists, entirely in character – as well as being the fulfilment of a lifelong dream. It’s not simply a matter of lending his name as a celebrity endorsement. “It’s a one- man, self-financed passion,” he says.

Grant’s first experiment in perfumery took place when he was growing up in Swaziland.

“When I was 12 years old I fell madly in love. I went to the local pharmacy, but buying perfume was out of my pocket-money range. So I thought I could make some out of rose and gardenia petals.

“I put them in jam jars filled with boiled sugar water, and buried them in the garden for two weeks. I thought when I dug them up they would be bottleable. Of course they weren’t. They were stink bombs.”

Three years ago the handbag designer Anya Hindmarch (a family friend) remarked on Grant’s fondness for sticking his nose into shrubs and flowers while on holiday in the Caribbean. “She said, ‘Are you going to do something about this?’ I said, ‘Do you mean psychiatrically?’ She said, ‘No. I mean making a perfume’.”

Mini-eureka moment
Having assembled his favourite ingredients – including, this being Richard E Grant, marijuana – and consulting a professional French “nose” by the name of Alienor Massenet, there followed six months of fiddling about with oil samples and pipettes, mixing and sniffing and starting over, before a midnight “mini-eureka moment” when the fledgling fragrance finally matched the creator’s idea of how it ought to smell.

The new perfume, Jack Covent Garden, was inspired by Grant’s stint as a waiter in London’s theatre district when he first came to England in 1982.

“I always knew that on first nights actors are given flowers and fruit – and very often use ginger to clear their throats. As do opera singers.”

As he riffs on the various “notes” of Jack Covent Garden (it contains oranges, rose, lime, ginger, orris oil and pimento), it becomes clear that Grant really is a total fragrance nut.

“The best way to describe it,” he says, “is that chefs I know – amateur ones, as well – walk around trying to imagine what ingredients will go together. This is what I obsessively think about. Mixing these scents in my head and then trying to see if I can make it become something delicious.”

Finding the time
How has he managed to combine the role of entrepreneur with a full-time acting career? “Well, there are gaps in acting,” he says. “When you’re unemployed you have time. And when you’re filming there always big gaps.” Currently, for example, he is filming a TV adaptation of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. “But I’m playing a secret service man, so I’m not on every day.”

What’s the least satisfying thing about being a perfumer? “I failed all my maths at school, so dealing with the business side has been an incredible learning curve.”

And the most satisfying? “When my wife or daughter tests the perfume on people who have no idea that I’ve done this, and they love it. The kick of that is as good as any good review I’ve ever had in my day job.”

Considering that Grant’s performance in Withnail & I has been described as a tour de force, truly that is the sweet smell of success.

Richard E Grant will be in Brown Thomas, Dublin on April 24th and 25th.

TheGroomingGuide.com – 17th April, 2015

‘Don’t ever get the haircut of your idol… the gap between the dream and the reality is a very dark shadow!’

Interview by Nick Cox with contributions from J. Webb And Z. Keys

You will recognise Richard E. Grant from numerous Hollywood films and TV dramas, including Gosford Park, Dracula, The Crimson Petal, Dom Hemingway and most recently Downton Abbey. However Richard first stumbled onto our screens in 1982 as Withnail in Bruce Robinson’s cult film, and he’s been firmly on our style radar ever since.

A compulsive sniffer Richards latest ‘project of personal passion’ is fragrance and last year saw the birth of his first successful scent named Jack. This week he launches his latest ‘signature in scent’ ‘Jack – Covent Garden’ exclusively with Selfridges. This has to be great news for us mere mortals…we may not be as witty, or even as stylish as Richard, but we can have a slice of the olfactory action!

Jack – Covent Garden £95.00 for 100ml EDP exclusively at Selfridges www.selfridges.com

What is your earliest fragrance memory?

Johnson’s Baby Powder and I still love it. It reminds me of my childhood as well as my daughter’s.

Do you have a signature fragrance? What is your current favourite fragrance and are you loyal?

I wore Eau Sauvage all through my teenage years until I was 25, then I switched to Penhaligon’s Bleinheim Bouquet when I emigrated to England in 1982, I remained loyal for three decades until I created my own fragrance JACK a year ago.

What inspired your own fragrance brand?

I had a huge crush on a girl when I was 11 and 3/4’s and wanted to make her a gift so I tried to create a perfume from the Gardenia and Rose petals which I stole from my mother’s garden. I boiled them in sugar water and buried them in jam jars in the ground, believing that after two weeks they would transform into perfume, they didn’t! Over four decades later whilst on holiday in the Caribbean, fellow house guest Anya Hindmarch noticed that I compulsively sniffed everything in sight so she suggested I create my own fragrance. She introduced me to Roja Dove who then introduced me to Catherine Mitchell at the IFF who in turn took me to Liberty who were searching for a British unisex niche fragrance. I combined all my favourite ingredients- Lime, Marihuana Mandarin, Clove, Nutmeg Pepper, Vetiver and Tobacco, then ‘Nose’ Alienor Massenet added Oud and Musk and after a period of 6 months we finally arrived at the formula that I had imagined for so many years. So JACK truly is my ‘signature’ in scent.

Where did you get the idea for the fragrance notes in Jack – Covent Garden?

Having worked as a waiter in Covent Garden, I knew it as the centre of the theatre district and also ( until 1973) a fruit and vegetable market. So I chose to combine Nell Gwynn’s legendary Oranges with Rose and Ginger as actors and opera singers are always given fruit and flowers on first nights, as well as Ginger to keep their throats in order. The crucial addition of Carrot Oil means the resulting fragrance is yet again unisex and utterly edible.

You always manage to look dapper and composed…how?

Haha. Thank you. Expect that being over six foot and built like a wire coat hanger, clothes probably look much more dapper than they ought to.

Do you have a specific morning grooming routine?

The usual – gnashers brushed, shower, shampoo, electric shave and a liberal spritz of JACK.

Bath or shower? With who and with what?

I favour both bath and shower, it just depends on how rushed I am. Kiehl’s shampoo and Jo Malone Bath Oil are my products of choice.

Which other British brands do you favour in terms of skincare and fragrance?

I’m a ‘One Man Brand’ in terms of scent so I stay loyal to Jack and because I’ve never used any skincare products or moisturisers my wife refers to my face as an old croc handbag. I’m infact in my early thirties but just look a couple of years short of my bus-pass for not slapping the goo on as maritally instructed.

Have you ever had any other grooming disasters?

I once mistakenly believed that I could emulate the David Bowie PIN-UPS cover in the early 1970’s so I had the requisite Pom Pom front cut and mullet and looked like a bell bottomed pimply geek. A photo of which I will regrettably NOT be sharing with you. Haha.

Which other men (alive/dead/real/fictional) inspire you in terms of their personal grooming?

David Bowie was God when I was a teenager for being so bold, idiosyncratic and chameleonic and he remains so. Cary Grant is still the epitome of gentlemanly ‘cool’ decades after his death.

Withnail is our unlikely grooming hero, as an alcohol intolerant did you have any issues getting to grips with the role?

I’ve never read a role like it before or since and count myself incredibly lucky that Daniel Day-Lewis turned it down giving me the chance as a total unproven unknown to have a crack at it. My father was an alcoholic so I had first-hand experience of addiction and that hugely informed my interpretation.

If you could give your younger self any style/grooming advice what would it be?

Don’t ever get the haircut of your idol as the gap between the dream and the reality is a very dark shadow, canyon wide. But then again snaps from those years provide endless amusement to my daughter.

Your latest project, 7 Deadly Sins, is an interesting take on both literary and physical depictions of sin – how did you come up with the idea and have you made any peculiar discoveries?

I was just asked to host the series so it’s all credit to the writers and creative team. Let’s just say discovering that certain monkey tribes solve EVERY social issue by bonking their way out of trouble seems like a highly evolved way of socialising rather than going endlessly to war, which we humans seem inclined to do.

Where and when are you at your happiest?

Making things, be it fragrance, writing, directing, painting, playing the piano, going to the theatre, going to gigs or galleries – I relish visual and aural stimulation at all times.

End.

SIDE IMAGES:

1. Jack – Covent Garden £95.00 for 100ml EDP exclusively at Selfridges

2. Withnail

3. DIOR Eau Sauvage EDT £290.00 for 1000ml at Selfridges

4. Dickie in Dom Hemmingway

5. Blenheim Bouquet £85 for 100ml at www.penhaligons.com

6. Jo Malone Bath Oils from £19.00 at www.jomalone.co.uk

7. Nell Gwyn by Lely

8. Timeless Cary Grant

9. David Bowie

10. Kiehl’s Amino Acid Shampoo £26.00 for 500ml at John Lewis

11. Selfridges & Co 400 Oxford Street London W1A 1AB