SharonRooney stars with the legendary Joseph Marcell (Geoffrey in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) in short film Good Night Henry.
Written and directed by Isher Sahota, the cast also includes Ryan Gage (The Musketeers, The Hobbit).
This period comedy is set in 1865:
‘When the Prime Minister dies in scandalous circumstances, Mr Pageant - his closest advisor - must salvage the country’s free trade deal with the visiting French ambassador whilst limiting the damage a chambermaid may cause to the country’s reputation.’ X
It sounds like Sharon’s plays the troublesome chambermaid!
Sharon Rooney as Josephine in The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain.
The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain: Sharon Rooney on acting her age, reuniting with Benedict Cumberbatch and falling for Mr Bumble (Sunday Post, January 1, 2022)
Deep-set crow’s feet, neck wattle and wrinkles: at 33, Glasgow girl Sharon Rooney has the lot – but only when shooting her new movie.
The My Mad Fat Diary star sat patiently for hours while make-up artists transformed her into a 72-year-old with glued-on jowls and special contact lenses to create the illusion of rheumy eyes.
“I would get messages from my mum saying ‘Send me pictures,’” recalls Rooney.
“Eventually I gave in and immediately she said, ‘You look like your gran.’ That’s what I tried to warn her! I looked so like her mum, who passed away not long ago, although my gran wouldn’t mind, she’d have found it funny.
“I found it fascinating, but not scary because we should be allowed to age. In fact, there’s something beautiful about ageing.
“You can see a life in a face. For instance, I have a really strong frown line between my eyes because I frown when I’m concentrating. I also have smile lines, because that’s been my life, so I’d never want to erase that.”
In The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain, Rooney plays the sister of the titular artist, who made a fortune painting affectionate pictures of cats, only to lose the lot through bad business deals and ill health.
Since the movies spans decades she appears first as a teen, then a middle–aged woman and eventually as a pensioner.
“The make-up people were brilliant,” she says. “But I think it was harder making me look 17 than it was to make me look 70.”
The film is a passion project for Benedict Cumberbatch, who produced it through his own company, as well as starring as the cat-obsessed Louis Wain.
It reunited Rooney and the Doctor Strange star for the first time since 2013, when she was cast in a Sherlock episode called The Empty Hearse: “I only had a tiny wee scene and it wasn’t even with Benedict but Sherlock is one of my mum’s favourite shows and before filming the whole cast got together to read through the script, so I got to sit in a room and watch Benedict and Martin Freeman work.”
Eight years later, Sharon and Benedict finally share the screen. “He hasn’t changed,” she says. “Back then he was very kind and very generous and he’s still lovely, and ridiculously talented.”
Rooney didn’t know much about Louis Wain before making the movie. “I think that goes for a lot of people,” she says.
“But although you might not know the name, you’d recognise his pictures of cats when you saw them – the style is so distinctive.”
Unsurprisingly, cats feature in the film, including a kitten called Mr Bumble who won Rooney’s heart.
“Up till then I’d got a funny thing with cats. I like them, but I was a bit nervous because our family once had a cat and she hated us,” says the former Two Doors Down star.
“Not just me, the whole family. We looked after her for seven years, and spoilt her quite a bit because we wanted her to like us but she wouldn’t even let me hold her.
“In the end we gave up and passed her on to a friend. The day after she left, my mum phoned her pal to see how the cat was doing, and she said, ‘She’s doing great, such a loving cat.’ Unbelievable! So for a long time I thought, ‘oh well, cats just don’t like us.’”
2021 has been a busy year for the actress, despite the pandemic. As well as Louis Wain, she scooped a supporting actress award for the short film Do No Harm, appeared alongside Keeley Hawes in ITV drama Finding Alice and is set to appear in the upcoming BBC thriller The Control Room.
“I feel like I’m in a really good place now, because I get to do these big films and telly jobs and then I get to do smaller comedies,” says Rooney.
“I love that my work is a completely mixed bag. I’ve just finished filming two jobs that were complete opposites. One of them was The Control Room, and the other one I can’t talk about yet – which is very annoying, because it would make this story a lot better.”
Rooney has been so busy working that she doesn’t have much time to relax in front of the TV: “If I’m away from home, in a strange place, I stick on something like Stepmom, Bridesmaids, or an Adam Sandler movie because I’ve seen them so often that if I fall asleep, it’s OK.
“At this time of year, I also love the Nativity films with Martin Freeman and David Tennant. Their song Dude, Where’s My Donkey is very catchy although when I was scrolling through Tiktok the other day, I saw some of the kids from the film and they are all grown up and six feet tall now.
“Now I understand what my gran used to say about doctors getting younger and younger!”
Despite globetrotting for work, Sharon has no plans to move away from the Dumbarton home she shares with her mum and dad.
“I keep saying to my mum, ‘you’re never, ever getting rid of me,’” she laughs. “I constantly get asked, “have you moved to London yet?” And the answer is that I don’t think I will ever move to London, because I don’t want to.
“When I started out, I had to travel up and down to London to meet people, and it was hard because I would be down to the last two or three for a part, then not get it. The train fare was about £90 each time.
“As an actor, it’s part of life, especially when you’re starting out and people don’t really know you. Now self-taping has become a lot more common, especially after the Covid pandemic began.”
Instead of auditioning actors in person, TV and film bosses now ask them to film themselves reading for a part. For Rooney, this has been a game changer, and has made her mum Libby into a star turn playing all the other characters in Sharon’s scenes.
“My mum loves taping with me, and she’s brought me luck on loads of jobs,” she chuckles.
“She’s my magic charm when I’m trying for a part, and I usually get a note afterwards saying, ‘your mum was very good!’”
“Leading scientist, Dr Beth Anderson, breaks into a high security facility in the dead of night. Why is she there? Is she a thief? A terrorist? A threat to national security? None of the above. Risking her career rather than admit the truth that she has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and overwhelmed by a fear of causing harm to others, she has been compelled into her most critical mission yet - to steal an out of date sandwich, in order to save a pregnant colleague from eating it. Just as Beth is about to lose everything, she finds connection and understanding from an unlikely source.”
Sharon Rooney stars alongside Claudie Blakley and Alison O'Donnell. She plays Shauna, a security guard.
Do No Harm is directed by Douglas King, with an original score by Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres. Screenplay by Rosy Barnes.
For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to watch somewhere around 50 Christmas and Christmas-adjacent silent films from before 1920 to put together a playlist for you all. So, I hope you enjoy!
I chose these twelve as a representative selection. My general criteria were:
Christmas should be central to the story
The plot should be novel to a modern viewer or something a modern viewer would be surprised to see so early on film
The list on the whole should have a variety of settings and narrative structures
Two quick presentation notes: 1. Some of the videos have music and some don’t, so you may want to check your volume level. 2. The intertitles for some of these films are not in English, so be sure you have captions turned on for English translations.
Short and sweet, this film sees children put to bed by their nanny on Christmas Eve and Santa Claus coming down the chimbley to fill their dutifully hung stockings. Director G.A. Smith used his own patented technique of double exposure to show Santa’s arrival without cutting away from the children’s room. Santa Claus might not pack the punch of a Méliès trick film, but it’s a fun novelty and is purportedly the first appearance of Santa Claus on film.
The Christmas Angel follows an impoverished girl driven into the city to beg on a snowy winter night. First she’s chased away from a church by more seasoned beggars; then she’s thrown out of a poultry seller and harassed by police. On the verge of falling asleep in the snow, a rag-and-bone man rouses her and offers her help. Later, the girl passes out beside a road but is luckily spotted by a wealthy couple on a car ride. When they learn of her plight, they bring her home along with food and gifts.
Though not as fantastical as some of Méliès’ more famous works, The Christmas Angel is still highly stylized (and stylish) and features special effects that photograph beautifully. It’s also worth noting that the version of the film included here is the American cut. The original French cut, titled Détresse et Charité (Distress and Charity), did not include the sequence with the wealthy couple and instead ends with the girl dying in the snow.
Directed by Edwin S. Porter for Edison Manufacturing Company
This is the first time the poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas” was put on film. Loosely following the poem, we see Santa Claus prepare for his yearly trek while a middle-class family prepares for his visit. When Santa heads out, we are treated to an extended panning sequence with a fully painted backdrop for a mini Santa and his reindeer to glide across. When Santa arrives at the family home, he chaotically dumps presents and decorations around their living room and makes a large, decorated tree appear out of thin air. (Across many of the movies I watched to put this post together, this seems to be a favored scenario for the jolly fat man around this time–and it’s delightful.) The family then wakes to find their gifts and the film closes with Santa directly wishing us a Merry Christmas.
Directed by J. Searle Dawley and Edwin S. Porter for Edison Manufacturing Company
Even at the risk of this list being too Edison heavy, I couldn’t leave this great short out. While walking with his mother, a rich little boy encounters a poor little girl alone in the cold. They take her home to play and warm up. When the boy learns that the girl doesn’t believe in Santa because apparently Santa doesn’t visit poor children, he hatches a scheme. On Christmas Eve, the boy has a stake out near the fireplace and takes Santa hostage, tying him up and holding him at gunpoint. The boy then forces Santa to visit the girl–going so far as shimmying down the chimney himself to let Santa in the front door. When the girl wakes up to a beautifully decorated tree, new toys, and a full stocking, she can finally believe in Santa Claus. While I’m generally not so into stories about supposedly benevolent rich people, I do love the implications this story has on how Santa Claus works and I also find the means with which the boy gets his way hilarious.
This entry is a three-for, which I hope you’ll excuse, but I couldn’t decide which Cretinetti Christmas to share! Cretinetti, the comedic persona of filmmaker Andre Deed, is an absolute agent of chaos.
In the 1909 film, Cretinetti attempts to bring a tree home for a Christmas party. The destruction escalates wildly, culminating in an entire building falling to pieces.
If you can believe it, the stakes are even higher in the 1910 film, when Cretinetti can’t resist sneaking out of bed on Christmas Eve to snack on the candy decorating the tree. When Santa sees what Cretinetti has done, he chides him and takes him back to his workshop, which is apparently in heaven. Destruction ensues. Cretinetti then proceeds to cause havoc for Saint Peter, annoying god so much that he calls the devil to come get Cretinetti. Cretinetti is then chased to hell where demons try to cook him alive. Thankfully, spoiler alert, it was all a bad dream and he wakes up on Christmas morning with a terrible stomach ache.
The 1911 film returns to localized chaos. Cretinetti has a run-in with a mail carrier and his Christmas packages get mixed up with one of the carrier’s parcels. The parcel contains three bottles of ether which then begin to emit gasses in the middle of the family Christmas party.
I wasn’t familiar with Cretinetti before reviewing films for this list, but I’m definitely going to seek out more of Deed’s movies. Each of these films had well-executed chaotic slapstick; over-the-top in all the right ways.
Produced by Cricks & Martin Films for Clarke, Nickolls, & Coombs Confectionery
To start, if you’re not sure what a Christmas cracker is, it’s a colorfully decorated paper tube that makes a cracking noise as you pull it open. Inside the tube is a paper hat, a joke, and/or a small toy. It’s a traditional part of UK Christmas celebrations.
This short starts as a documentary of the workers at Clarke, Nickolls, & Coombs constructing the crackers. It’s a fun thought that as early as 1910, people were interested in watching how mass-produced consumer goods were made. It’s also fun to see these skilled workers ply their trade so deftly (even though I’m sure wages and working conditions were less than ideal). The film ends with a family celebrating around a Christmas tree topped with a functional giant cracker.
Directed by J. Searle Dawley for Edison Films Manufacturing Company
There are so so so many film adaptations of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol made before 1920 that it was hard to choose which one to include on this list. In the end I chose this 1910 version for its economy of storytelling, fluid use of special effects, and for Marc McDermott’s great performance as Scrooge.
Directed by Gilbert M. Anderson (Broncho Billy) for The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company
Gilbert M. Anderson was an incredibly prolific and popular filmmaker and star of early American film, particularly in his role as Broncho Billy. As was typical for Anderson, he’s pulling triple duty on Broncho Billy’s Christmas Dinner as the star, director, and producer. The film features a simple and heartwarming story.
On Christmas, Billy comes across a young woman in peril as her horses got startled and are now pulling her cart along wildly. Billy manages to wrangle the horses and in gratitude she invites him to Christmas dinner at her parents’ home. Unfortunately, her father happens to be the sheriff. But, all is well, as it turns out that Broncho Billy’s been given a pardon and the sheriff welcomes him to the table gladly.
The enduring appeal of outlaws or criminals getting into the Christmas spirit is fascinating to me and it’s cool to see such an early instance of the story!
Produced by Société Générale des Cinématographes Éclipse
In all honesty, this is the least Christmassy of all the films I included here, but its style and novelty stood out. The sets, costuming, and production design are lush. It might also be one of the weirdest Christmas stories I’ve even encountered.
After Lord Othberg passes away, the conniving Otto plans to assassinate the baby prince in order to inherit the lordship himself. He poisons the baby, but the princess prays for her baby brother to come back to life as her Christmas gift. An angel appears to her and they summon Jesus, who resurrects her baby brother. Of course, they then place the revivified baby in the castle’s nativity scene, to the joy of all but Otto.
Directed by Van Dyke Brooke for Vitagraph Company of America
With a more classic Christmassy story, Ida’s Christmas tells us of a family who are facing hard times. Ida (played by a very small Dolores Costello) has her eyes on a pricey doll. Meanwhile, her mother seeks out employment with a wealthy family. The matriarch of the wealthy family overhears Ida’s wish and decides to buy the doll for her as a surprise. Later, Ida is distraught to find that the doll has been purchased but comes across a wallet that someone has dropped. She considers taking the money, but chases down the owner instead. The old man gives her some reward money for returning the wallet. Ida rushes to see if she can buy the doll, but has second thoughts when she thinks about how much her family could use the money. She arrives home with the money just in time for a Santa-esque old man to show up bearing packages and an assurance that the wealthy family has work for her father. The film ends with the family celebrating an unexpectedly Merry Christmas.
It’s a sweet story that hits so many beats of what we now consider traditional Christmas tales.
Fair warning, if you thought The Princess’s XMas Gift was odd, you might need to ready yourself for this one. Stop-motion virtuoso Władysław Starewicz (Ladislas Starevich) spins a tale about a tiny ornament of Santa/Ded Moroz coming to life on Christmas and going out into the wild to bring Christmas joy to creatures small and smaller, including a frog and a ladybug. Starewicz’s animation is as impeccable as ever and the short is imaginative and quirky.
AN AMICUS PRODUCTION (starting at top left to right): TALES FROM THE CRYPT (1972), THE VAULT OF HORROR (1973) , THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD (1971), ASYLUM (1972), AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS (1973), I, MONSTER (1971), TORTURE GARDEN (1967), THE BEAST MUST DIE (1974), DANGER ROUTE (1967) and DR.TERROR’S HOUSE OF HORRORS (1965).
Makers of some mighty fine horror anthologies!
WIKIPEDIA: Amicus Productions was a British film production company, based at Shepperton Studios, England. It was founded by American producer and screenwriter Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg
(Fun fact… Max Rosenberg is director Doris Wishman’s cousin).
SharonRooney stars with the legendary Joseph Marcell (Geoffrey in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) in short film Good Night Henry.
Written and directed by Isher Sahota, the cast also includes Ryan Gage (The Musketeers, The Hobbit).
This period comedy is set in 1865:
‘When the Prime Minister dies in scandalous circumstances, Mr Pageant - his closest advisor - must salvage the country’s free trade deal with the visiting French ambassador whilst limiting the damage a chambermaid may cause to the country’s reputation.’ X
It sounds like Sharon’s plays the troublesome chambermaid!
Sharon Rooney as Josephine in The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain.
The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain: Sharon Rooney on acting her age, reuniting with Benedict Cumberbatch and falling for Mr Bumble (Sunday Post, January 1, 2022)
Deep-set crow’s feet, neck wattle and wrinkles: at 33, Glasgow girl Sharon Rooney has the lot – but only when shooting her new movie.
The My Mad Fat Diary star sat patiently for hours while make-up artists transformed her into a 72-year-old with glued-on jowls and special contact lenses to create the illusion of rheumy eyes.
“I would get messages from my mum saying ‘Send me pictures,’” recalls Rooney.
“Eventually I gave in and immediately she said, ‘You look like your gran.’ That’s what I tried to warn her! I looked so like her mum, who passed away not long ago, although my gran wouldn’t mind, she’d have found it funny.
“I found it fascinating, but not scary because we should be allowed to age. In fact, there’s something beautiful about ageing.
“You can see a life in a face. For instance, I have a really strong frown line between my eyes because I frown when I’m concentrating. I also have smile lines, because that’s been my life, so I’d never want to erase that.”
In The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain, Rooney plays the sister of the titular artist, who made a fortune painting affectionate pictures of cats, only to lose the lot through bad business deals and ill health.
Since the movies spans decades she appears first as a teen, then a middle–aged woman and eventually as a pensioner.
“The make-up people were brilliant,” she says. “But I think it was harder making me look 17 than it was to make me look 70.”
The film is a passion project for Benedict Cumberbatch, who produced it through his own company, as well as starring as the cat-obsessed Louis Wain.
It reunited Rooney and the Doctor Strange star for the first time since 2013, when she was cast in a Sherlock episode called The Empty Hearse: “I only had a tiny wee scene and it wasn’t even with Benedict but Sherlock is one of my mum’s favourite shows and before filming the whole cast got together to read through the script, so I got to sit in a room and watch Benedict and Martin Freeman work.”
Eight years later, Sharon and Benedict finally share the screen. “He hasn’t changed,” she says. “Back then he was very kind and very generous and he’s still lovely, and ridiculously talented.”
Rooney didn’t know much about Louis Wain before making the movie. “I think that goes for a lot of people,” she says.
“But although you might not know the name, you’d recognise his pictures of cats when you saw them – the style is so distinctive.”
Unsurprisingly, cats feature in the film, including a kitten called Mr Bumble who won Rooney’s heart.
“Up till then I’d got a funny thing with cats. I like them, but I was a bit nervous because our family once had a cat and she hated us,” says the former Two Doors Down star.
“Not just me, the whole family. We looked after her for seven years, and spoilt her quite a bit because we wanted her to like us but she wouldn’t even let me hold her.
“In the end we gave up and passed her on to a friend. The day after she left, my mum phoned her pal to see how the cat was doing, and she said, ‘She’s doing great, such a loving cat.’ Unbelievable! So for a long time I thought, ‘oh well, cats just don’t like us.’”
2021 has been a busy year for the actress, despite the pandemic. As well as Louis Wain, she scooped a supporting actress award for the short film Do No Harm, appeared alongside Keeley Hawes in ITV drama Finding Alice and is set to appear in the upcoming BBC thriller The Control Room.
“I feel like I’m in a really good place now, because I get to do these big films and telly jobs and then I get to do smaller comedies,” says Rooney.
“I love that my work is a completely mixed bag. I’ve just finished filming two jobs that were complete opposites. One of them was The Control Room, and the other one I can’t talk about yet – which is very annoying, because it would make this story a lot better.”
Rooney has been so busy working that she doesn’t have much time to relax in front of the TV: “If I’m away from home, in a strange place, I stick on something like Stepmom, Bridesmaids, or an Adam Sandler movie because I’ve seen them so often that if I fall asleep, it’s OK.
“At this time of year, I also love the Nativity films with Martin Freeman and David Tennant. Their song Dude, Where’s My Donkey is very catchy although when I was scrolling through Tiktok the other day, I saw some of the kids from the film and they are all grown up and six feet tall now.
“Now I understand what my gran used to say about doctors getting younger and younger!”
Despite globetrotting for work, Sharon has no plans to move away from the Dumbarton home she shares with her mum and dad.
“I keep saying to my mum, ‘you’re never, ever getting rid of me,’” she laughs. “I constantly get asked, “have you moved to London yet?” And the answer is that I don’t think I will ever move to London, because I don’t want to.
“When I started out, I had to travel up and down to London to meet people, and it was hard because I would be down to the last two or three for a part, then not get it. The train fare was about £90 each time.
“As an actor, it’s part of life, especially when you’re starting out and people don’t really know you. Now self-taping has become a lot more common, especially after the Covid pandemic began.”
Instead of auditioning actors in person, TV and film bosses now ask them to film themselves reading for a part. For Rooney, this has been a game changer, and has made her mum Libby into a star turn playing all the other characters in Sharon’s scenes.
“My mum loves taping with me, and she’s brought me luck on loads of jobs,” she chuckles.
“She’s my magic charm when I’m trying for a part, and I usually get a note afterwards saying, ‘your mum was very good!’”
At least The Asphyx has a title that makes you sit up and take notice. A 1972 British horror film set in late-Victorian England (and, wouldn’t you know it, the subject of my new Grand Old Movies post–for Halloween, yet), it’s a little mild with the scares but it seethes with ideas. Starting with the notion that there exists a death-seeking spirit coming to fetch one at the moment of passing, it dives into a rather morbid little tale confounding mad science, Greek mythology, spirit photography, an obsession with immortality, and the invention of an early film camera. That last is not actually remarked upon in the film but just happens to be there, operated by the protagonist, a country squire who dabbles in making things. These objects include, along with the camera, such domestic devices as a guillotine, a gas chamber, and an electric chair–some years before electricity was even installed in homes. All in the cause of trapping the Asphyx before it traps you. Like its title, the film is both weird and unique, anchored by the robust performance of Robert Stephens as the eternity-seeking squire. It may not be the most memorable horror film, but it certainly has its moments, especially one of Stephens undergoing a self-administered electrocution. What one won’t do for Science. Click here to read my post. And Happy Halloween.
@tcmparty live tweet schedule for the week beginning Monday, February 14, 2022. Look for us on Twitter…watch and tweet along…remember to add #TCMParty to your tweets so everyone can find them :) All times are Eastern.
Saturday, Feb. 19 at 6:00 p.m.
GET CARTER (1971)
A small-time gangster searches for the truth behind his brother’s death.
“Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life… But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin’ else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you’ve got heroin?”
“People think it’s all about misery and desperation and death and all that shit which is not to be ignored, but what they forget is the pleasure of it. Otherwise we wouldn’t do it. After all, we’re not fucking stupid. At least, we’re not that fucking stupid.”
“Our only response was to keep on going and ‘fuck everything’. pile misery upon misery, heat it up on a spoon and dissolve it with a drop of bile, then squirt it into a stinking, puerile vein and do it all over again. Keep on going, getting up, going out, robbing, stealing, fucking people over. Propelling ourselves with longing towards the day that it would all go wrong, because no matter how much you stash, or how much you steal you never have enough. No matter how often you go out and rob and fuck people over, you always need to get up and do it all over again.”
