World Enough and Time

When I saw Peter Wingfield at Torchsong last July, he was fresh from filming Riverworld, expecting it to be aired in November. It wasn't aired till now - the first part of the story was shown tonight. It seems part 2 will be tomorrow night. Are those all the parts there are? I had the impression from what Wingfield said that it was more than two parts _ I expected three or four one-hour episodes - but maybe they changed things.

Interestingly, he plays Sir Richard Burton, a historical personnage who has long interested me because he was a writer and linguist, a traveller in the old exciting Victorian sense of the word, bisexual, and relationship with his wife makes a good story. Peter Wingfield read up on Burton when he got the role, and was likewise impressed. He said that Burton was the only character in the story whose point of view really made sense to him.

He talked a lot about the story, the characters, the setting (not just the fictional Riverworld, but the beautiful Okanagan Valley where it was was filmed).

1. Peter is quite wonderful. That goes without saying. maaseru, who is much less of a Wingfield fan than I am, said she thought his looks are improving with age. I thought that last July. In this show... all I can say is, he looked magnificent, but he always does, to my eyes.
   
   
2. Pity he's playing a villain again. ( I think I'd rather see... )
   
   
   So now I stand by to see what happens tomorrow.
   
   
   ( Read more... )
   
   
   

A few odds and ends about Peter Wingfield at the convention:

• He looked good. Really good. I've never seen him in person before: I don't know if he looked that good because he always has and always will, or if the fresh air and exercise on filming in Kamloops helped, or if he has a painting in an attic. He is incredibly attractive.
  
  
• At the cocktail party, one of the organizers was making sure that the guests had a chance to talk to everyone. She (having met me one second earlier) introduced me to Peter. We did a "so pleased to meet you" mutual politeness while he smiled that incredible smile and I tried not to dissolve into a puddle on the floor.
  
  "Where are you from?" he asked.
  
  "Ottawa," I said, eloquently.
  
  "I've never been to Ottawa," he said. "I only know it by ... reputation."
  
  "It isn't our fault, it's the company we keep," I said. "I didn't vote for them!"
  
  "Neither did anyone I know," said Peter.
  
  We agreed it was one of those universal mysteries.
  
  
• In his first panel, Peter talked about working on "Riverworld", the TV miniseries based on Philip Jose Farmer's books, which he finished filming a week ago. ( When he was given the script )