August 2011 Recipient of Clan Murphy’s Brian Cox Award: Philip Davis
Graham Greene’s novels have fared better than most “classics” when it comes to film adaptations. The trailer from Rowan Joffe’s new version—Joffe both wrote and directed—suggests that here’s another worth watching and comparing to the original.
Among its other assets, the film’s cast includes Helen Mirren, John Hurt, Andy Serkis, and one of Clan Murphy’s favorite British character actors, Philip Davis—one of those seemingly ubiquitous actors who, if they aren’t in every movie or TV series, ought to be, and therefore Clan Murphy’s August 2011 recipient of the Brian Cox Award.
Phil Davis in SHERLOCK: A STUDY IN PINK
Most recently seen as the Taxi Driver in the pilot episode of the wonderful new BBC Sherlock (for which writer Mark Gatiss’ has received a well-deserved Emmy nomination) Davis has an IMDb rap sheet going back to 1972. Though he is best known in Britain for his TV work, he has appeared in a number of feature films, including one of Clan Murphy’s favorites, Nicholas Nickleby (2002) directed by Doug McGrath. Davis plays Brooker in the film, the man whose return from prison undoes the plots of Ralph Nickleby.
Davis’ deliciously nasty (and hypochondriac) Smallweed in the BBC Bleak House a few years back caused a new phrase to enter Clan Murphy’s vocabulary, to be growled whenever age, arthritis, or a game of tennis induces aches and pains worthy of mention: “Oh my bones and sockets…shake me up, Judy!” (For more on this, see this Clanese Dictionary entry, which includes a wonderful YouTube compilation of “the Best of Smallweed.”)
Phil Davis as Smallweed in BBC BLEAK HOUSE
Anyhow, here’s the Brighton Rock trailer, which has certainly sparked my desire to see the show when it comes round to Ashland. Phil Davis plays the gangster Spicer, the one who says, “You should have dealt with Rose…
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