REG fan Howard Watson gives us a little insight into Bruce and Uncle Monty

Withnail’s Uncle Monty

Uncle Monty in, Bruce Robinson’s brilliant directorial debut, Withnail and I, is one of the great comic characters of British film in the last half of the twentieth century. Marwood’s nemesis has become so popular, especially with his gay admirers, that he even has own fanclub.

Montague Withnail, as played by Thornaby’s finest son Richard Griffiths, the portly seducer spends less time on-screen than either of the leading players, but has ensured Robinson’s cult comedy a place in British film history, putting it with the best of Ealing’s darker masterpieces.

Kind Hearts and Coronets and Withnail and I both share a dark heart. Whilst the former is clearly fiction, the latter is clearly autobiographical. If so, who was Uncle Monty? The truth, in this case, is most certainly stranger than fiction.

As a young actor, Robinson, who had just left drama school and had yet to tread the boards, found himself flying to Rome to star in Franco Zefferelli’s version of Romeo and Juliet. His initial euphoria at landing such a plum job, however, swiftly turned to trepidation once he had touched down in Italy.

>From an interview given many years later, he admitted that Uncle Monty was based on his experiences with the famous director. Unable to reciprocate Zefferelli’s advances, he made the callow actor’s life a living hell, claiming that the young Robinson was nothing more than “a pretty face” and not much else.

Whereas, in the film, Marwood escapes the clutches of Monty and suffers no lasting ill effects, Robinson was not so lucky. He returned to England and ended up being hospitalised, due to a nervous breakdown. Fortunately, he recovered. As everyone in the industry was aware of what happened, however, he found it difficult to get acting work which eventually led him to writing. He would later be nominated for an Oscar for the screenplay for The Killing Fields.

Now the older, and much wiser, Robinson is magnanimous in his feelings towards Zefferelli: “If I met him today I’d be the first to open a bottle…”

Yet, without that hellish experience, we would have been deprived of one of the greatest comedic characters to have graced British film in the latter half of the twentieth century.

© Howard Watson 2000

In what is fast becoming the secret perv page, the miscellaneous promo shots get added to each time a totaly gorgeous pic arrives on my desktop. Just added another. Click here to see it.

Well the members of the REGiment obviously got along so well that the UK fraternity had a boozy reunion, this time on Camberwell Kazza’s home turf of Ireland. I rang from Australia and was greeted with a drunken rabble bouncing on Carolyn’s hotel bed, singing me songs and groping Neil. They’re obviously much more relaxed when REG isn’t around! Stay tuned for the aftermath photos. Who said the Internet would make people anti-social??

Karen found a book in her local bookshop today, Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell and it has REG and Helena Bonham-Carter on the front !!!

Heat Magazine, 3-9th June 2000

Nikki spotted this in Heat Magazine where apparently Richard is ‘officially’ one of “Madge’s New Best Friends”….here’s what it says :

“The Withnail & I luvvie became friends with Madonna when he was working in Hollywood and has remained so, despite documenting her idiosyncrasies in With Nails, his gossipy film diaries (he memorably revealed how she treated then-boyfriend Tony Ward with vague contempt, and how the entire evening’s events were structured around her whims). They were recently seen at a screening of Toy Story 2 together with their respective daughters, and Madonna also turned up at the charity event he had organised in order to help raise it’s profile.”