The Marksman

David Threlfall as Weaver The Marksman begins with the vicious murder of a 12-year-old boy, which precipitates a landslide of tragedy, retribution and revenge over the course of three episodes.

When Gordon Weaver is found dead in the wastelands of Liverpool, his grandfather, Doyle, sends for the boy's father. Weaver is a professional criminal living in Spain, but he returns to Britain to find his son's killers, and to become the marksman.

If that fairly bleak description doesn't sound like your style, then you might like to know that The Marksman does have an attraction beyond its intricate, violent, plot-line. Its name is David Threlfall.

Threlfall plays Weaver but you may remember him as the ghastly Tory MP Leslie Titmuss in John Mortimer's Paradise Postponed. Before that he gave a virtuoso performance as Smike, in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Nicholas Nickleby.

Paperback cover ''Good acting is like playing good Jazz,'' Threlfall told the Radio Times, and he should know. Threlfall is a northern lad from Manchester who did a spell at art school before settling down to learn acting at the Manchester Polytechnic. He cares about his origins but fights vigourously against being simply slotted into roles that reflect his background. ''A certain producer once turned me down for two roles because I was northern working-class. Just because this is the case it doesn't mean I shouldn't be playing, say, an Oxford don.''

No one who saw Threlfall playing Smike could disagree. ''Smike was emotionally beaten down, crushed and crippled. One or two psychiatrists said they were amazed how I got that character right. It's odd, it's one of the roles that came almost instinctively.'' Laater, Threlfall was playing Oedipus in Sophocles's Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus. Roles of violence and tragedy do seem to attract the 34-year-old actor.

So how does he feel about the latest one? ''I had an open door to anger when playing Weaver,'' says Threlfall. The Marksman is ' ''a revenge drama in quite a classical sense''

From ''The Listener'' Jane Hurley, 27 August 1988.

Episodes

1) Weaver believes he can spend the rest of his life in sunny exile, but a letter from Liverpool eventually arrives telling him his young son has been murdered in a crime of futile viciousness.
Retribution is implicitly demanded.
Scriptwriter: Ron Hutchinson
Based on the novel by Hugh C Rae
Music By: Richard Thompson, Peter Filleul.
Editor: Gwenda Bagshaw
Lighting cameraman : Paul V. Wheeler
Designer: John Coleman
Producer: Sally Head
Director: Tom Clegg
Weaver: David Threlfall
Brown: Richard Griffiths
Doyle: James Ellis
Irwin: Michael Angelis
Hazel: Leslie Ash
Leadbetter: Andrew Schofield
Bremner: Ray Kingsley
Macfadden: Craig Charles
Muriel: Eithne Brown
Brand: Nick Maloney
Girl in Spain: Gloria Rodriguez

2) Weaver is back in his adopted city to find the killers of his young son, but he needs the name of a bent copper from his partner-in-crime Irwin, even at the risk of aborting their well-planned heist.
Script Writer: Ron Hutchinson
Based on the novel by Hugh C Rae
Music By: Richard Thompson, Peter Filleul
Sound recordist: John Hooper
Make-up designer: ANN HUMPHREYS
Costume designer: INEZ NORDELL
Producer: Sally Head
Director: Tom Clegg
Weaver: David Threlfall
Brown: Richard Griffiths
Doyle: James Ellis
Irwin: Michael Angelis
Hazel: Leslie Ash
Greerson: Terence Harvey
Macfadden: Craig Charles
Leadbetter: Andrew Schofield
Bremner: Ray Kingsley
O'Hara: Dawn Archibald
Muriel: Eithne Browne
Brand: Nick Maloney
Kelling: Philip Whitchurch

3) Doyle has been murdered, and Brown sets out to take his friend's body home to Ireland while Weaver pursues the killers, helped by Hazel.
Script Editor: Ron Hutchinson
Based on the novel by Hugh C Rae
Music By: Richard Thompson, PETER FILLEUL
Sound recordist: John Hooper
Script Editor: Gwenda Bagshaw
Lighting cameraman: Paul V. Wheeler
Producer: Sally Head
Director: Tom Clegg
Weaver: David Threlfall
Brown: Richard Griffiths
Irwin: Michael Angelis
Hazel: Leslie Ash
Greerson: Terence Harvey
Macfadden: Craig Charles
Bremner: Ray Kingsley
Leadbetter: Andrew Schofield
O'Hara: Dawn Archibald
Muriel: Eithne Browne
Brand: Nick Maloney
Hotel clerk: Mike Hayden
Macfadden's secretary: Linda Flanagan

Doyle Weaver DAVID THRELFALLDavid Threlfall was unforgettable as slimy opportunist Leslie Titmuss in John Mortimer's Paradise Postponed, but you'll hardly recognise him in the new BBC thriller The Marksman. Threlfall is one of those chameleon actors who seem to disappear into each part they play. This time he is professional criminal Gordon Weaver, whose sunny retirement in Spain is brutally interrupted when his 12-year-old son. is murdered in Liverpool. Weaver returns to his native city to find and execute the killers.

The Marksman, also starring James Ellis and Leslie Ash, is superficially a whodunnit, but it has a touch almost of Greek tragedy. ''It is a revenge drama in quite a classical sense,'' says Threlfall. ''Principally it has to do with paying your dues. Man cannot escape from his destiny.''

Soundtrack

album cover Richard Thompson And Peter Filleul - Music From The BBC TV Series
BBC Records - REB 660 Arranged By, Written-By – Richard Thompson
Arranged By, Written-By, Producer – Peter Filleul
Leader [Musical Direction] – Ian Lynn

A1 - My Time - Christine Collister - 6:19
A2 - Gordon - 3:19
A3 - Rude Health - 4:51
A4 - Night Scool - 4:52
A5 - Cornishe Pastiche - 3:49
A6 - Crossing The Water - 3:21
B1 - The Marksman - 1:16. Read By [Poem], Written-by – Craig Charle
B2 - Kyrie (from "Missa Papae Marcelli")- 1:27. Arranged By – Peter Filleul, Richard Thompson, Written-By – Palestrina
B3 - On Yer Eyes - 2:12
B4 - Gutters On The Run - 3:51
B5 - Don't Ever Change - 4:53
B6 - Up There - 4:42