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For today’s Observer New Review I had the not-exactly-onerous assignment of spending an hour with the actor Ewan McGregor and director Michael Grandage, as they prepared to put on a new play, My Master Builder, in London’s West End. The two men go way back, and mostly they were cracking each other up with knockabout old stories – much of which there wasn’t room for in my article. McGregor recalled one of his first roles on stage, as Orlando in As You Like It, and how when Simon Callow – multiple Olivier and Bafta award winner – played the part in 1979, he walked out on stage at the National Theatre only to promptly forget the first line of the play.
“If you’re a woman and you’re about to have a baby, everybody tells you nightmare stories about childbirth,” said McGregor. “And when you’re an actor about to do a play, everybody tells you terrible things that have happened on the stage.”
Grandage, meanwhile, reminisced how during one of his first jobs as a young theatre director he had attempted to give notes to an experienced actor. The actor calmly responded: “Can I just be clear? Are you asking me to do something different to what I’ve been doing very successfully for the last 60 years?” What did Grandage say, McGregor wanted to know. “I took a very deep breath,” Grandage replied, “and said: ‘I think I am, yes!’”
Good and bad vibes
Last week had big 1990s throwback vibes for me. First, there was meeting McGregor, whom I first saw on screen in that decade in Shallow Grave and unforgettably as Renton in Trainspotting. On the telly, I watched the BBC documentary Loaded: Lads, Mags and Mayhem, which covered the period from 1994 to 1997, when a bunch of maniacs (please don’t sue me for this) ran the most successful magazine in the country. Then there was the new Paramount+ drama series MobLand – the second episode airs tonight – the subject of which doesn’t have anything to do with the 90s, but because of Guy Ritchie (who is executive producer and directs the first two episodes) feels like it does.
There was more than nostalgia to enjoy in last week’s 90s-fest – hat-tip to MobLand’s Pierce Brosnan – but I can’t escape from having conflicted feelings about the era. The time was a bit bolshie, often naff, relentlessly sexist and arguably lacking enough redeeming charm. There’s a queasy moment in the Loaded documentary, when comedian Mark Lamarr relentlessly picks on TV personality Gail Porter on an episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks. You can feel her squirming with awkwardness through the screen. Still, I’d better get onboard with the decade as we’re heading for a summer of Oasis – then there will be no escape.
Uneasy viewing
I was also left a little uneasy by the Ingebrigtsen legal proceedings, which continued in Norway last week. Billed as perhaps the sports trial of the decade, it pitted the athletics coach Gjert Ingebrigtsen against his children, the most well known of whom is Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the 5000 metres Olympic champion.
The trial, in which Gjert is accused of physical and emotional abuse and faces a potential prison sentence of six years, has just concluded its second week: Jakob testified in week one, claiming that Gjert repeatedly threatened to “beat him senseless”; last week, Gjert, who denies all charges, offered his rebuttal to accusations made by Jakob and his sister Ingrid.
Any notion that the trial would involve sitting back and getting the popcorn in, was short-lived. Throughout proceedings, Jakob referred to his father only as “the accused” or “the defendant”. Gjert, meanwhile, admitted he had swapped being a father with being a coach and “the coach was not necessarily a kind man”. Heartbreaking stuff, and a story seen too often in young sports stars. The trial – which continues with the testimony of Gjert’s other children – is due to last until 16 May.
Tim Lewis is an Observer writer
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