A Sony Pictures Classics Release

All Is True

About

Synopsis

Kenneth Branagh’s ALL IS TRUE is a portrait of William Shakespeare during the last three years of his life, as he leaves London and returns to his family in Stratford-upon-Avon. The film follows Shakespeare as he strives to bridge the distance between himself and his wife and two daughters, recover from the loss of his son, and come to terms with his legacy as an artist.

Branagh and screenwriter Ben Elton start with the known facts about Shakespeare’s life during that time and attempt to fill in the gaps with what Shakespeare seemed to reveal about himself through his own writings.

In 1613, after a devastating fire destroys the Globe Theatre during the first production of Shakespeare’s play “All is True” (“Life of Henry VIII”), a distraught Shakespeare (Kenneth Branagh) returns to Stratford. As he saw his family infrequently during his two decades working in London, his wife Anne (Judi Dench) and daughters Judith (Kathryn Wilder) and Susanna (Lydia Wilson) are surprised, but hardly pleased, to hear he now intends to stay in Stratford. Shakespeare, who is haunted by the death at age 11 of Judith’s twin brother Hamnet (Sam Ellis), attempts to ease his grief by planting a memorial garden for his son.

As the film progresses, the simmering tensions in the family that have been contained during Shakespeare’s absence, gradually surface. Anne, who felt humiliated by her husband’s public display of affection in his sonnets, is not pleased when the man who may have inspired them, and to whom they are extravagantly dedicated, the Earl of Southampton (Ian McKellen), comes to pay a visit. Judith resents what she feels is her father’s strong emotional preference for her dead twin Hamnet over her, and her anger is only magnified by the guilt she feels as the surviving twin. Shakespeare’s relationship with his elder daughter Susanna is more cordial, but the relationship is upset when she is accused of being unfaithful to her husband, which leads to a very public trial. As the son of a once prestigious local man who fell into disgrace, Shakespeare is particularly threatened by Susanna’s scandal, as he prizes the elevated social standing in Stratford he has worked so long to achieve. He also has lingering questions about the circumstances surrounding his son’s death and is driven to find answers.

ALL IS TRUE is a labor of love for Branagh, who has been fascinated with the life of Shakespeare since his teens. He has assembled a troupe of Shakespeareans, ranging from legends like Judi Dench and Ian McKellen, to longtime veterans of Branagh’s plays and films, to a young generation of actors drawn from his theatre company.

Just as Shakespeare used his brilliant imagination to create living portraits of kings and queens, Branagh and Elton present a multi-faceted and complex rendering of Shakespeare as a human being: a man with great creative strength, capable of sublime wisdom in his work, but an ordinarily flawed individual often struggling to apply those insights in his own life.

Told with warmth and wry humor, ALL IS TRUE is a family drama, a detective story, and a quiet reflection on a life dedicated to art. Ultimately, it is the uplifting tale of a man who journeys from darkness and loss to a renewed appreciation of the richness and value of life, allowing him to play out his final act in peace.

 

About the Production

It isn’t surprising that when 16-year-old Kenneth Branagh took his first hitchhiking trip on his own, he would choose Stratford-upon-Avon for his destination. He stayed at a tent campsite out of town while he went to plays at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. “I also visited all the Shakespearean birthplace sites,” he says. “Even back then, I wanted to put together the two things: the man himself and the work that he produced. I’ve been interested in that ever since.”

For ALL IS TRUE, his film about Shakespeare the man, Branagh chose a little-known period of the playwright’s life to study: from his return to Stratford after the burning of the Globe Theatre in 1613, to his death three years later. Shakespeare returns to a family—wife Anne, daughters Susanna and Judith— that hardly knows him, while they are all still recovering from the death of Judith’s twin brother Hamnet, ten years before, at age eleven. There is a lot on the public record during this time, including scandals and a trial, “It’s a relatively unexplored period and yet so much happened during it,” says Branagh. “As so much of what we know about Shakespeare is speculation, it seemed a really interesting period in which to gather together some real and known facts.”

Branagh approached his longtime friend, writer/comedian Ben Elton (“Black Adder,” “The Young Ones”) to write the screenplay. The two Shakespeare aficionados had spoken for decades about collaborating on a project, and although Elton played a role in Branagh’s film of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, nothing ever came of their plans. But shortly after Branagh made a guest appearance in “Upstart Crow,” Elton’s TV comedy about the life of Shakespeare, Branagh rang up Elton and asked him if he was ready. “Ken’s first brief to me was, ‘Consider his retirement,’ Elton says. “‘Consider a man returning to consider his place in the world, wondering about his legacy, what he meant to his family, and what his family meant to him. A personal family drama about, effectively, a stranger returning. But you need a story. Go find one.’”

Just as Shakespeare started with the known facts about kings and queens and then found his stories, Branagh wanted Elton to begin with the facts and make a speculation based on an informed appreciation of Shakespeare’s plays and themes. “All the late plays of Shakespeare deal with lost children that may or may not be reunited with their parents,” says Branagh. “He wrote numerous plays that explored the challenges of losing a child. Very explicitly in ‘King John,’ he wrote the sad passage, ‘Grief fills the room up of my absent child.’ And so, in his late plays there’s this tremendous desire to reconcile and bring unity, to reunite family and reunite a family atmosphere. He also wrote many plays with twins as major characters, and, I think he especially understood the unique empathy and bond between twins.”

In June 1613, a misfired spark from a stage cannon set the roof of the Globe Theatre ablaze during the debut performance of Shakespeare’s “All is True” (Shakespeare’s alternate title for “Henry VIII”), and in less than an hour the theatre had had burned to the ground. Shakespeare barely escaped with his life. “The first thing I realized was that Shakespeare’s retirement coincided with the Globe fire,” says Elton. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t that be a mortality wakeup call?’ I had the idea that Shakespeare would take this as a cue to go home to Stratford and consider his legacy and his place in the world. And within a few years, his daughters both get involved in sex scandals. I was very inspired by these real events, and others. Coupling that with my chats with Ken about the themes in the plays, I came up with what might have been Shakespeare’s reactions to the known events. Its fiction based on truth.”

The film portrays Shakespeare as a normal human being with similar flaws to the rest of humankind. “While Shakespeare could reach the sublime in his insight and depiction of all humanity through his plays,” says Branagh, “that wisdom, that clarity, that leap of understanding was not something he necessarily was able to apply to his own life. He could see into the heart of all of us, but I think he understood that his imperfection as a man - his own life was his own raw material - was potentially a road to his perfection as an artist.”

When Shakespeare returns to Stratford, he finds himself a virtual stranger in his own home. He has scarcely been around his family for the last twenty years. “They are entirely unused to him being there regularly,” says Branagh. “And now, in the context of life in Stratford-upon-Avon, he was the returning hero, a massive celebrity coming back into their lives, the lives that had established themselves without him.” Shakespeare had married his wife, Anne (Judi Dench) when he was 18 and she was 26 and pregnant. She was also illiterate. “It seemed an interesting tension to us, from the age gap and constant separations to the difference in life experience between a woman who we believe was unable to read or write being married to a man acclaimed as the greatest poet of his age,” says Branagh. Elton’s screenplay also raises the issue of how the publication of the sonnets might have affected Anne. “One thing we can be pretty sure about is that when the man who was the most celebrated writer of his day publishes love poems to people obviously not his wife, it must have caused the same kind of speculation then as it does now,” says Elton. Even in far-off Stratford, it would seem quite likely that word of the sonnets would have made it back to Anne. “She must have got wind of something,” says Dench. “She might not have been able to read or write, but her daughter Susanna could. I’d be pretty beady when he came home if I thought about the Dark Lady of the sonnets. And then it turned out to be a chap! I’d be quite beady.”

Shakespeare’s daughter Judith (Kathryn Wilder) is haunted by the death of her twin brother Hamnet, who died ten years before the story begins. “I think she’s damaged by the sense that, in the loss of Hamnet, she becomes a child who has to achieve for both,” says Branagh. “Who has to bring twice as much love, twice as much achievement, with a sense of guilt at being the survivor. And I think that leads to a sort of emotional damage. It doesn’t always make her sympathetic or rational, but it does make her very immediate, and passionate, and human.” As a consequence, Judith is often combative with her father. “She’s been mucked up by losing Hamnet, feels completely alone and isolated, and has a lot of suppressed torment,” says Wilder. “It all comes out when her father comes back to Stratford, and she ends up splurging a lot of secrets.”

Susanna (Lydia Wilson), Shakespeare’s older daughter, however, is able to read, and is married with a 3-year-old daughter. Having that shared relationship with words and language makes her more of a confidante to her father than Anne or Judith is able to be. “As she is literate she probably would have read his sonnets,” says Wilson. “And they reveal a whole other side to him. And that’s a side that I think Susanna also has access to. She’s put a lid on a lot of those passions in her own life, and I think there’s a connection there with her dad.”

Elton and Branagh also wove a ghost story into their narrative of ALL IS TRUE. “Ken wanted a ghost,” says Elton. “We talked about Shakespeare’s interest in the supernatural. I find it extraordinary that this man who was so incisive in his entirely modern and humanistic approach could also take delight in the idea of magic. He wrote often of fairies and pixies and enchanted woods. And of course, the ghost he was most likely to see would be his son. As you can change one consonant from Hamnet and you have the name of one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, it seemed like a good idea to reverse ‘Hamlet’ and bring the ghost of a son to confront his father, where Shakespeare had the father ghost confronting the son.”

It gradually becomes clear that one of Shakespeare’s motivations for returning to Stratford was to attempt to make up for lost time. “He's not just mourning the loss of his son, he’s also mourning not really knowing his son or his daughters,” says producer Ted Gagliano. “I think by the end of the story it becomes apparent that there was a price for Shakespeare’s fame. It’s a very modern theme, this idea of ‘What does fame cost you in life if you’re an absentee father?’”

As Anne and Judith weren’t able to read or write, we don’t know much about them. “Through the speculations Ben makes in his script we are given the opportunity to meet them face to face and have them speak about the frustrations they felt,” says Branagh. “So, we were, I think, able to give voice to female voices that in the Shakespeare story have not previously been heard.”

Stratford-upon-Avon was dominated by Christianity, and in particular, the Puritans, a Protestant sect with a mission to “purify” the English church of its Catholic practices. It was an insular society in which people watched over each other all the time and reported their neighbors for perceived moral infractions. “It wasn’t easy to speak out,” says Branagh. “The penalties for being on the wrong side of them could be very severe.” One of the aims of the Puritans, like Susanna’s husband John Hall (Hadley Fraser), was to close down theatres, and they were sometimes successful in doing so. “It’s stunning to me,” says Elton. “Shakespeare’s son-in-law was a member of a philosophical group that believed theatre was evil.” Therefore, as a man of the theatre, Shakespeare was determined not to rock the boat too much in Stratford. “I think that Shakespeare was very pragmatic and a realist in a world where if you spoke up, you could be overheard—and as a result, punished,” says Branagh.

The Earl of Southampton (Ian McKellen) is thought by many to be the inspiration for the “Fair Youth,” the handsome young man in Shakespeare’s first 126 sonnets. Henry Wriothesley, the 3rd Earl of Southampton was an admirer and patron of Shakespeare’s, and the poem “Venus and Adonis” is dedicated to him. In the movie, Shakespeare still appears to hold romantic feelings for Southampton, feelings the Earl doesn’t return. “For Will, it’s romantic love,” says Branagh. “For Southampton, it’s a love that is to do with his own unique and deep appreciation of who Shakespeare is as an artist.” Southampton loves Shakespeare profoundly, but not in the way Shakespeare wants him to. “As soon as Will vocalizes it, allows it to become real, instantly he is rejected, as he would have been because there's no way that an Earl would have accepted that kind of familiarity from effectively a scribbler, a tradesman,” says Elton. “There was no real status for artists in his day.” Unrequited love is a topic that comes up often in Shakespeare’s plays. “People denied their relationships because of social status, family, identity, and even the implicit suggestion of sexual identity as well,” says Branagh. “Forbidden love is a painful subject of which Shakespeare writes regularly, and we may reasonably assume he felt often, or at least once.”

One of the ideas that Branagh brought to Elton was the idea of Shakespeare building an honorary garden for Hamnet as a backbone for the story. “Shakespeare mentions flowers and plants and trees and fauna 700 or 800 times in his plays, and draws his attention to 140 different species,” says Branagh. “He clearly had a firm and fundamental connection to nature. And I felt that a man, after twenty years of ferocious activity, might find appealing the idea of doing something creative at a different pace within a setting he was so keenly drawn to. And that structure seemed a strong way to show the passing of the seasons through the kinds of images of natural beauty that Shakespeare was so drawn to.”

“All is True” is the title of Shakespeare’s last play at the Globe, but it has several other meanings. “The title encapsulates with irony, the dramatic license that Shakespeare takes regularly, and we were taking in this film,” says Branagh. “There is also a second meaning to the title in this story, which is that everyone’s truth matters, that all voices deserve the right to be heard, and that finding the exact truth is very hard. And although truth, particularly in the life of a family, may contradict itself, you can argue that for the individuals who feel passionately about whatever the subject may be, that for each of them, all is true. And that truth can be heard, and (perhaps helpfully), be listened to.”

The dialogue in ALL IS TRUE is much more contemporary and conversational than the lofty prose we have come to think of as Elizabethan. “Older language can sound over formal and dated,” says Elton. “But it didn’t sound that way at the time for the people using it. Ken wanted the characters to sound colloquial, which meant the last thing we wanted was to give them a lot of thee’s and thou’s. For me, it was a question of using modern internalized language without bringing in jarringly modern phrases, with the odd nod to an older form of the English language.” This approach went for Shakespeare as well as everybody else. “From all descriptions of the way he spoke in real life, the word that comes up regularly is ‘gentle,’” says Branagh. “His understanding of such a wide range of characters in his work gives the sense that he was involved and familiar with all kinds of disparate groups of people in his own life, in all kinds of worlds. That gentle quality he had would have allowed him to do that, to be a good listener, a good observer, and that possibility was something we wanted to reflect.”

Seeing Shakespeare as a man concerned with status, property, and the accumulation of money may contrast with people’s preconceptions of him as a pure-minded aesthete, but Shakespeare amassed a lot of property in his time, including the “second biggest house in Stratford.” This aspect of his personality is likely to have been rooted in his relationship to his father, John Shakespeare, who had risen to the post of Mayor of Stratford before suffering a precipitous fall into scandal and insolvency when Shakespeare was an adolescent. Suddenly young William was no longer entitled to free education at the town school. “Imagine what a blow that would have been and how character-forming it must have been,” says Elton. “We took the view that would have led Shakespeare to decide that he would rebuild his family fortune and it wouldn’t happen to him.” Branagh sees Shakespeare’s contradictory nature as one of the more interesting things about him: “You see a man who, as a human being, is capable of the kind of passion and romance and intellectual power he expresses in the plays, but he does so from a position of a man who seems to be very grateful for that roof over his head, for that wife and children, for that coats of arms, and for that social acceptance. It doesn’t go with one’s idea of a romantic, adventuring artist, but maybe it redefines it to say, ‘You can’t be drunk every night and produce 37 plays. You have to be able to get home at night and sleep well.’”

While Elton uses a very broad comedic brush with his portrait of Shakespeare in “Upstart Crow,” Branagh and Elton agreed to temper the humor for ALL IS TRUE. “Ben, who is one of the funniest people I know, used restraint to bring wry humor to the story throughout,” says Branagh. “What I wanted was a kind of warmth, not gags, but a gentle twinkle in Shakespeare’s eye—he has a dry humor that is not straining too hard. In my experience of people who write at a very high level in comedy, they themselves feel no need to be cracking jokes in their own lives. They save that kind of energy for their work. So, in our film, I have this sense of Shakespeare the professional in repose.”

Branagh’s cast is headed by Judi Dench and Ian McKellen, two actors who bring a vast experience in Shakespearean roles. Dench also has a particular familiarity with Stratford, as she made her home near there for many years, in a house in Charlecote across the street from the manor Shakespeare’s nemesis Sir Thomas Lucy once inhabited. Branagh also cast many young actors with whom he has previously worked with on stage and screen: Kathryn Wilder (Judith), Hadley Fraser (John Hall), Jack Colgrave Hirst (Tom Quiney), John Dagleish (Rafe Smith), and Eleanor de Rohan (Margaret Wheeler). He also summoned many veterans of his previous film and theatrical projects, like Gerard Horan (Ben Jonson), who was in six of his films, Jimmy Yuill (Vicar Edward Woolmer), who appeared in five films, and Sean Foley (John Lane), who has directed Branagh often on stage and in a film. “When Ken calls, people pay attention,” says Ted Gagliano. “Especially when if it’s for something with Shakespeare, that he’s very passionate about. Almost everybody has some kind of past connection with him, and when he calls, we all want to be part of it.” Dench agreed to participate without waiting to hear any details. “My agent said, ‘Ken wants to drive down to your house and ask you if you’ll do something,’” she says. “My answer was, ‘Save the petrol, I’ll do it.’”

Almost the entire film was shot either inside or near Dorney Court, a 15th Century Tudor Manor House near Windsor Castle that has been occupied by the same family since the 16th Century. While the stately home is similar in style to Shakespeare’s home New Place, it is considerably smaller, so production designer James Merifield had to come up with ingenious ideas to create more out of less. By turning the camera and imaginative redressing, he and his team made single rooms look like many: everything from multiple bedrooms to Rafe Smith’s haberdasher’s shop. One of the building’s exteriors was used as a main street in Stratford, and the property also included a lake and a 15th Century chapel. “It’s been a fun jigsaw of a design experience to unravel,” says Merifield. One tool that Merifield and Branagh utilized often dates back to the dawn of the cinema—painting on glass in front of the camera. As they were setting up shots, an artist would add details of historic Stratford, that seen through the camera’s view, added to the existing texture of the exterior walls of Dorney Court. “There’s something magical on a set when a matte painter is at work producing an image on glass,” says Branagh. “It produces a fascination between all the people working on it that if affects both the quality of the matte painting and to some extent, excites the actors in a way that is really infectious.”

Branagh’s Shakespeare makeup was inspired by the “Chandos” portrait in the National Portrait Gallery in London, which is considered, of all the paintings of Shakespeare, to be the one he actually sat for. “I had considered merely being identified as bearded in some way, or look like some version of myself,” says Branagh. “But when I went to see this portrait, as I’ve done many times, the soul of William Shakespeare is there to see in some measure. I felt that to try to recreate that look was to try to inhabit the man and encourage the audience to come a little closer to the real man without, for those who know my work, feeling as though I’d got in the way. So I wanted to have the high forehead, I wanted to have the curly, wavy hair, I wanted to have the wispiness of the little thumb piece of beard just at the top of the chin. I wanted to get close to that outside look as possible. But when I look at that portrait, and this is very hard to convey in reproductions, there is a soul and soulfulness in those eyes that I wanted to bring to the interior of the character. So even though Shakespeare’s eyes in the portrait are sort of hazel and my eyes are gray blue, we decided not to have me wear contact lenses. We wanted the bulk of the exterior to be what we most likely think he could’ve looked like, and then tried through the eyes to bring the inside up and out through me.”

As director, Branagh didn’t have time to sit for hours in the makeup chair to be transformed into Shakespeare, so he asked hair and makeup designer Vanessa White and prosthetic makeup designer Neill Gorton what was the shortest possible time for them to do the job. When White said they could do it in two hours, he said he would give them an hour and a half. “So that’s what we got,” says White. “We had to get it right in that one and a half hours,” says White, “There was no time for touch-ups. You could never return and say, ‘Oh I’ve just got to nip you back to the wagon.’ It wasn’t going to happen.” Once Branagh’s’ hair, beard, and prosthetic forehead and nose were applied, he got into costume and started directing the actors all day long in the guise of William Shakespeare. “When the man sitting opposite of you is Ken Branagh, but is also William Shakespeare, that’s alarming enough, but then he’s also the director,” says Ian McKellen. “So you have to wipe from your mind the fact that the piercing gaze he’s giving you is partly assessing your performance rather than believing he’s in the company of the real Earl of Southampton.”

For the cinematography, Branagh and cinematographer Zac Nicholson took their inspiration from great painters like Vermeer and Rembrandt, utilizing candlelight to create chiaroscuro effects, and favoring wide lenses and low angles to put as much of the story in each frame, including the characters with their environments. “We were striving for a painterly look that allowed us to be witness to these events, without trying to intervene too much with a too busy camera style,” says Branagh. “My instruction to Zac was not to have a moving camera, a tilting or panning camera, and not to use camera cranes or dolly tracks.” Branagh choose to shoot the film in CinemaScope, and often composing his images with the actors’ faces dominating one side of the wide frame and the rest left relatively open. “When you’re using the Scope format, a vast part of what you might call ‘epic dimension,’ is the human face itself,” says Branagh. “When you are photographing people like Judi Dench or Ian McKellen, you are photographing the landscape of their faces, this landscape of experience. As they bring such a depth of density and intensity and complexity, it means that the rest of your frame needs to be clean, so the humanity of the film is not fighting over-cluttered scenic design.”

Composer Patrick Doyle (HENRY V) began his collaboration with Kenneth Branagh in the 80s, when he created music for Branagh’s Renaissance Theatre Company, a relationship that has led to fifteen films together. Doyle often likes to begin his work with text and uses the cadences as a foundation for his music. “As a composer, I like to have a branch to hang my leaves on,” he says. Branagh gave him “Fear no more the heat o’ the Sun” from “Cymbeline” and “I know a Bank,” Oberon’s speech from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” portions of which are heard in the film. Doyle made songs out of those two verses, and all the music heard in ALL IS TRUE is derived from those two melodies, and one other, adapted in various tonalities. For orchestration, Doyle kept his music simple, dominated by a deep reverberant solo piano (which he played himself), along with chamber strings, harp, and the occasional period instrument like Virginal or bass recorder. “It shouldn’t be too period, because there’s a contemporary feel to the film,” says Doyle. While “I know a bank” is only used instrumentally in the film, Doyle’s daughter Abigail sang “Fear no more the heat o’ the Sun” into her iPhone and Doyle played it for Branagh, who asked Abigail to re-record it for the end credits. “He said, ‘she’s your daughter, which is a lovely connection to the story,’” says Doyle.

Near the end of the film, Shakespeare receives a visit from his friend and fellow playwright and poet Ben Jonson (Gerard Horan). By that point Shakespeare has made progress reconciling himself with his family and with Hamnet’s death, although he still has unresolved feelings about what he has accomplished and the value of his current place in the world. Jonson urges Shakespeare to take stock of the fact that, in stark contrast to most other Elizabethan playwrights, he has survived, and that is something he should be deeply proud of. “There’s a triumph in his end,” says Elton. “He died peacefully and deeply respected, in his own bed.”

Shakespeare’s life came to an end in the town of his birth, on his 52nd birthday on April 23rd, 1616. Seven years later, Jonson wrote his friend’s eulogy in the First Folio, saying, “He was not of an age, but for all time!” Shakespeare’s legacy has entered its fifth century because he presents ideas about human nature that never grow old. “He was able to write about love, about envy, and about anger,” says Judi Dench. “What didn’t he write about? What isn’t covered in those plays? And in such language.” Shakespeare’s plays continue to enthrall, and his poetic words have become the everyday parlance of our lives. “We find in Shakespeare a compassionate and intelligent voice that observes human behavior with great wisdom and compassion, but above all with great entertaining insight,” says Branagh. “He has at his fingers a really sure touch with storytelling. He knows what the ingredients are for a ghost story, or a comedy, or a character piece. He talks about very recognizable human situations and makes observations about us all that are sometimes damning, but often very comforting, very relatable, and rather inspiring. So, while human beings still struggle to work out how to be happy, and as long as his words continue to entertain them, his work will endure.”

 

Cast

Kenneth Branagh

Kenneth Branagh

Director / William Shakespeare

Kenneth Branagh’s theatre credits includes: “Another Country,” “Henry V,” “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” “Hamlet” (Royal Shakespeare Company), “Romeo and Juliet” (also directed), “Public Enemy,” “As You Like It,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “Look Back in Anger,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “King Lear” (also directed), “Coriolanus,” “Hamlet” (Renaissance Theatre Company), “Richard III,” “Edmond,” “Ivanov,” “The Painkiller,” “Macbeth” (also co-directed), “The Winter’s Tale” (also co-directed), “Harlequinade” (also co-directed), and “The Entertainer.”

His credits as a theatre director include “The Life of Napoleon,” “Twelfth Night,” “Uncle Vanya,” “The Play What I Wrote,” “Ducktastic,” “All On Her Own,” “Romeo and Juliet,” and “Hamlet” (with Tom Hiddleston).

Branagh’s film credits as actor/director include HENRY V, DEAD AGAIN, PETER’S FRIENDS, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN, HAMLET, LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST, SLEUTH, JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT, and MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS. He directed AS YOU LIKE IT, THE MAGIC FLUTE, THOR, CINDERELLA. and, upcoming, ARTEMIS FOWL.

Branagh’s film acting credits include A MIDWINTER’S TALE, OTHELLO, THE GINGERBREAD MAN, THE THEORY OF FLIGHT, CELEBRITY, WILD WILD WEST, RABBIT-PROOF FENCE, HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS, VALKYRIE, PIRATE RADIO, MY WEEK WITH MARILYN, MINDHORN, and DUNKIRK.

His television credits include “The Billy Plays,” “The Boy in the Bush,” “Fortunes of War,” “Shadow of a Gunman,” “Conspiracy,” “Shackleton,” “Warm Springs,” “10 Days to War,” and “Wallander.”

Branagh is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA), holds a prestigious Michael Balcon Award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), and has received five Academy Award® nominations in five different categories. In 2013, he received a knighthood for his services to drama and the community in Northern Ireland.

 

Judi Dench

Judi Dench

Anne Shakespeare

Since playing Ophelia in “Hamlet” at The Old Vic Theatre almost 60 years ago, JUDI DENCH has garnered wide popular and critical admiration for a career marked by outstanding performances in both classical and contemporary roles. She has won numerous major awards—including an Academy Award®, ten BAFTA Awards and a record eight Laurence Olivier Awards—for work on both stage and screen. In recognition of her many achievements, she received an OBE (Order of the British Empire) in 1970, became a DBE (Dame of the British Empire) in 1988, and in 2005 was awarded a Companion of Honour. She has also received the Japan Arts Association’s prestigious Praemium Imperiale Laureate Award for Film and Theatre.

ALL IS TRUE is Dench’s eleventh collaboration with Kenneth Branagh, after appearing with him on stage in “Coriolanus” and “The Winter’s Tale,” directing him in “Much Ado About Nothing” and “Look Back in Anger,” acting with him in the films GHOSTS and MY WEEK WITH MARILYN, directed by him and co-starring in HENRY V, HAMLET, and MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, and directed by him in the upcoming ARTEMIS FOWL.

Dench will soon be seen in the feature film RED JOAN, directed by Trevor Nunn. Last year, she appeared in Branagh’s MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS and starred in VICTORIA & ABDUL, directed by Stephen Frears. This latter performance was nominated for a Golden Globe®, SAG and AACTA International Award. This is the second time in her career she has played Queen Victoria. For her first such performance, directed by John Madden in MRS BROWN, she won BAFTA and Golden Globe® awards and was nominated for an Academy Award®.

She received an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award, both for Best Supporting Actress, for another magisterial performance as Queen Elizabeth I in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, and she has received Academy Award® nominations for performances in a further five films: Lasse Hallstrom’s CHOCOLAT, for which she was also nominated for a Golden Globe®; IRIS, directed by Richard Eyre, for which she also won a BAFTA Award; MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS, directed by Stephen Frears, for which she was further nominated at the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes®; NOTES ON A SCANDAL, again directed by Richard Eyre, which also brought her BAFTA and Golden Globe® nominations; and PHILOMENA, directed by Stephen Frears and co-starring Steve Coogan, for which she also received BAFTA, Golden Globe® and SAG award nominations.

Dench is recognized globally for her legendary role as M in seven James Bond films, from GOLDENEYE to SKYFALL.

Her other film work includes TEA WITH MUSSOLINI, directed by Franco Zeffirelli; A ROOM WITH A VIEW and A HANDFUL OF DUST, both of which brought her BAFTA Awards for Best Supporting Actress; 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD, directed by David Jones; HENRY V and HAMLET, both directed by Kenneth Branagh; NINE, directed by Rob Marshall; JANE EYRE, directed by Cary Fukunaga; MY WEEK WITH MARILYN, directed by Simon Curtis; J. EDGAR, directed by Clint Eastwood; the hugely successful India-set comedy THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL, and its sequel THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL, both directed by John Madden; Roald Dahl’s ESIO TROT, opposite Dustin Hoffman; and MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN, directed by Tim Burton.

Dench is also revered for her television work. Most recently she starred as Cecily, Duchess of York, in “The Hollow Crown” for the BBC, and past credits include: “The Last of the Blonde Bombshells,” for which she received BAFTA and Golden Globe® Awards and an Emmy Award nomination; the long-running hit BBC sitcom “As Time Goes By”; and the critically acclaimed “Cranford” and “Cranford: Return to Cranford,” for which she received a number of major award nominations.

Her achievements on screen are mirrored by her celebrated career on stage. She received an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress for her most recent role as Paulina in Kenneth Branagh’s celebrated West End production of “The Winter’s Tale,” and she has previously won Olivier Awards for “Macbeth” and “Juno and the Paycock” for the RSC; “Pack of Lies” at the London Lyric; and “Anthony and Cleopatra,” “Absolute Hell,” and “A Little Night Music,” all at The National Theatre. Her performance in David Hare’s “Amy’s View,” directed by Richard Eyre, brought her a Critics Circle Award and an Olivier Award nomination when it played in London at The National and Aldwych, followed by a Tony Award for Best Actress when the play transferred to Broadway. Her other theatre credits include: “The Royal Family,” directed by Peter Hall; “The Breath of Life,” directed by Howard Davies and co-starring Dame Maggie Smith; “All’s Well That Ends Well,” for the RSC; “Hay Fever,” directed by Peter Hall; “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” for the RSC; “Madame de Sade,” directed by Michael Grandage for The Donmar West End; Peter Hall’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Rose Theatre, Kingston; “Peter and Alice,” directed by Michael Grandage in the West End; and “The Vote,” directed by Josie Rourke for The Donmar in 2015, which was also broadcast live on UK General Election night in a landmark television event.

 

Ian McKellen

Ian McKellen

Earl of Southampton

IAN McKELLEN had just completed 100 performances of his second “King Lear” when he shot his scenes in ALL IS TRUE, an appropriate way to celebrate that run by meeting Shakespeare himself, in what appeared to be Stratford 500 years ago. Since his teen years of queuing overnight at the old Memorial Theatre, McKellen has felt the thrall of Stratford. The acting giants of his youth triumphed there in Shakespeare’s plays—and he was part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s good fortunes in the 1970s and 1980s, as Macbeth to Judi Dench’s Lady Macbeth, Romeo to Francesca Annis’s Juliet, Iago to Willard White’s Othello, as well as in productions of Marlowe, Ibsen, Shaw, and Brecht.

At Stratford, in London, on tour in UK and worldwide, he played Coriolanus, Leontes, Toby Belch, Henry V, Hamlet, and Iago. His recognition as a classical actor came in 1969 with “Richard II” at Edinburgh International Festival. Alternating with Marlowe’s “Edward II,” he toured, played two sold out seasons in London, which were televised. He will be reprising these and more Shakespeare in his forthcoming solo show: “It’s not so much a farewell tour as ‘Here I am Again!’ I’m mainly revisiting theatres I remember with affection from Wigan Little Theatre where I saw my first Shakespeare to the Duke of York’s in London where I made my professional West End debut in 1964. But I’ll also be in Ballymena (where the McKellens hail from), Inverness (more ancestors) and my local Theatre Royal Stratford East—all for the first time.”

McKellen’s film work stretches from RICHARD III and GODS AND MONSTERS, to Middle Earth and Marvel’s X-MEN. He will soon be seen in Bill Condon’s THE GOOD LIAR (with Helen Mirren) and as Gus the Theatre Cat in the Tom Hooper movie of CATS, opposite Judi Dench as Deuteronomy. “This has made up for the Earl of Southampton’s not meeting Judi as Anne Hathaway at home,” he says. “In the stills I particularly like her tall hat, though the Earl has a dashing one of his own.”

His favorite roles include the title role in Stephen Frears’ “Walter,” the very first “Film on Four”; Widow Twankey in “Aladdin,” two years running at the Old Vic; Mel Hutchwright for ten episodes of “Coronation Street,”’ fooling with Rick Gervais in “Extras” (“How do I act so well?”); and with Derek Jacobi in “Vicious.”

ALL IS TRUE is the first time he’s worked with Kenneth Branagh, although he was asked to be in the film of HENRY V. “I was busy elsewhere, alas,” he says. “I remember Simon Rattle saying his orchestra was tearful recording the “Te Deum” retreat from battle. If Ken had not so completely achieved that film and subsequent Shakespeare, I wouldn’t have dared try and film RICHARD III. I’ve admired his theatre work too—its purposefulness and daring. Working with him at last was potentially unnerving. Not only was I facing the Branagh persona, there too was Shakespeare and they were both the director! It was a great relief to be told by all three at the end of our day together, that all was well.”

 

Kathryn Wilder

Judith Shakespeare

KATHRYN WILDER (Judith Shakespeare) is an Australian actress.

She recently appeared in Kenneth Branagh’s MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, and played the role of Chaulk for two seasons on Netflix’s period drama “Frontier.”

Wilder has appeared with the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company in “Romeo and Juliet,” “The Winter’s Tale,”and Terence Ratigan’s “Harlequinade” at the Garrick Theatre. She also played Ophelia in Branagh’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art production of “Hamlet,” opposite Tom Hiddleston’s Hamlet.

Her other RADA credits include “As You Like It,” “Sweet Charity,” “Medea,” “The Women of Twilight,” and “The Merry Wives of Windsor.”

She is currently filming the independent feature FLESH AND BLOOD in the Australian Outback.

 

Lydia Wilson

Susanna Hall

LYDIA WILSON is a stage, television and film actress. She recently starred in the six-part Netflix series “Requiem,” as Matilda Gray, a cellist whose life is turned upside down after her mother’s suicide.

After graduating from RADA in 2009, Wilson made her film debut in the NEVER LET ME GO in 2010. Her subsequent films include ABOUT TIME, LOVE IS THICKER THAN WATER, STAR TREK: BEYOND, STILL, and THE LIE OF YOU.

Her other TV credits include “Any Human Heart,” “South Riding,” The Crimson Petal and the White,” “Black Mirror” (as the kidnapped Princess Susannah in the Season One first episode, “The National Anthem”), “Dirk Gently,” “The Making of a Lady,” “Misfits,” “Ripper Street,” and upcoming, “Flack.”

Wilson’s stage credits include Sarah Kane’s Olivier Award winning “Blasted,” “King Charles III,” “Hysteria,” “‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore,” “The Acid Test,” “The Heretic,” “Blasted,” “Pains of Youth,” and “House of Special Purpose.”

Born to an American mother and an English father, and brought up in Queen’s Park in London, Wilson studied at Chelsea College of Art and Design and Queen’s College, Cambridge, before training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).

 

Hadley Fraser

John Hall

HADLEY FRASER is an English stage actor, singer, musician, composer, and writer. He recently worked with director Kenneth Branagh as a member of Branagh’s Theatre Company at the Garrick Theatre, performing in “The Winter’s Tale” and “Harlequinade.” He also appeared in Branagh’s film, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS.

He also co-wrote the book and lyrics for the musical “Committee…,” which was performed in 2017 at the Donmar Warehouse.

After graduating from Birmingham University and the Royal Academy of Music, Fraser made his West End debut in “Les Misérables.” His subsequent British theatre credits include “Peter Pan,” “The Pirates of Penzance,” “The Shaughraun,” “Putting it Together,” “The Far Pavilions,” “Longitude,” “Assassins,” “Pacific Overtures,” “My Fair Lady,” “A Christmas Carol,” “The Fantasticks,” “Les Misérables 25th Anniversary” (as Grantaire) “The Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary,” “Les Misérables” (as Javert), “The Pajama Game,” “The Machine,” “Coriolanus,” “City of Angels,” “The Vote,” “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” “Saint Joan,” and “Young Frankenstein.” He made his Broadway debut in the musical “The Pirate Queen” in 2006, and appeared in “The Last Five Years” at Theater Aspen in Colorago, and “The Machine” at New York’s Park Avenue Armory.

His film credits include LES MISÉRABLES and THE LEGEND OF TARZAN. His television credits include “Doctor Who,” “The Wrong Mans,” “Sons of Liberty,” “Pompidou,” “Holby City,” “Him,” “Decline and Fall,” and “Endeavor.”

As a recording artist and musician, Fraser has appeared on numerous albums including his own EP, “Just Let Go,” and cast recordings of “Young Frankenstein,” “The Pirate Queen,” “The Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary,” and “Les Miserables 25th Anniversary.” He provided music for British theatre productions including “Measure for Measure” and “Hobson’s Choice” and on radio for “Ross Noble: Britain in Bits.” He has recorded for composers and artists including Pete Townsend, Grant Olding, Joby Talbot, Laura Tisdall, Scott Alan, Ramin Karimloo, The Knights of Hyperbole, and Stuart Matthew Price.

 

Jack Colgrave Hirst

Tom Quiney

JACK COLGRAVE HIRST was a member of Kenneth Branagh’s theatre company at the Garrick Theatre, appearing in Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” and “Romeo and Juliet,” and Terence Rattigan’s “Harlequinade.”

After graduating from RADA, Hirst landed his first job on the feature film ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS in 2016. He then appeared in the TV dramas “Trials of Jimmy Rose,” “Stan Lee’s Lucky Man,” and the 10-part part Showtime series “The Terror.”

Hirst’s other theatre credits include “Troilus and Cressida” at the Globe Theatre and “Crying in the Chapel” at the Contact Theatre.

He was nominated for the Ian Charleston Award in 2015.

 

Jack Dagleish

Rafe Smith

JOHN DAGLEISH played Ray Davies in the original cast of “Sunny Afternoon,” a musical about the career of The Kinks, with music and lyrics by Davies. For his performance, Dagleish won the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 2015.

As a member of Kenneth Branagh’s theatre company at the Garrick Theatre, he appeared in “The Winter’s Tale” and Terence Rattigan’s “Harlequinade.”

His recent film roles include Levi in FARMING, opposite Kate Beckinsdale, and Lonnie Donegan in the upcoming JUDY, starring Renée Zellweger as Judy Garland.

His other film credits include THE PRIEST, FRANKIE TEARDROP, AGE OF HEROES, SNOW IN PARADISE, THE MONUMENTS MEN, JUSTICE LEAGUE, CHRISTOPHER ROBIN, and MARY POPPINS RETURNS.

Dagleish’s television credits include “The Bill,” “Any Human Heart,” “The Fantasist” (pilot), “Lark Rise to Candleford” (Seasons 1-4), “The Hollow Crown,” “Beaver Falls,” “Starlings,” “Henry V,” “Truckers,” “Very Few Fish,” “Silent Witness,” “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell,” “Siblings,” “The Moorside,” “The Last Dragonslayer,” “Sparebnb,” and “The Bisexual.”

His theatre credits include “The Mother,” “Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Common,” “A Christmas Carol,” and “Sylvia.”

 

Sean Foley

John Lane

SEAN FOLEY is a British actor, writer, and director.

Foley is a double Olivier Award winner for plays he co-wrote and starred in: “Do You Come Here Often?” and “The Play What I Wrote” (directed by Kenneth Branagh). He also received a further Olivier nomination for Best Actor for “The Play What I Wrote,” and Tony, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama Desk Awards nominations when it was presented at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre in 2003.

He directed the Olivier Award winning comedy, “Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense”; and “The Ladykillers” (five Olivier nominations including Best Director and Best New Play); directed and co-adapted “The Miser” (Olivier nomination); wrote and directed “Arturo Brachetti: Change” (Olivier nomination); co-wrote and starred in “Ducktastic” (Olivier nomination), directed by Kenneth Branagh; directed and co-adapted “A Mad World My Masters” for the RSC; and adapted and directed “The Painkiller” starring Kenneth Branagh. He also directed “Pinter’s People,” “The Critic,” “Ben Hur,” “What the Butler Saw,” “I Can’t Sing,” “The Walworth Farce” (starring Domhnall and Brendan Gleeson), “The Dresser,” and “Present Laughter.” Foley has also directed live shows for leading comedians, including “Joan Rivers: A Work In Progress,” “Armstrong and Miller–Live,” and “The Catherine Tate Show–Live.”

As a stage actor, as well as in ten original comedies for his own company, Foley appeared in “Mr Puntila and His Man Matti,” “Hysteria” (as Sigmund Freud),”The Critic,” “The Real Inspector Hound,” “I Am Shakespeare,” and Branagh’s RADA production of “Hamlet” (as Polonius and Osric).

Foley directed the feature film MINDHORN, starring Julian Barrett and Steve Coogan, which was shown at the London Film Festival in 2016, and won the LOCO Discovery Award for Best First Feature. Kenneth Branagh appeared in the film as himself. He also directed “Marilyn Monroe and Billy Wilder” (starring Gemma Arterton and James Purefoy in the title roles) and “Diana & Freddie” for the TV series “Urban Myths.”

23 His TV acting credits include Samuel Beckett’s “Act Without Words I,” directed by Karel Reisz (starring in single role), “Foley and McColl: This Way Up,” “Brass Eye,” “Happiness,” “Comedy Lab,” “Wild West,” “Twisted Tales,” and “Urban Myths.” His film acting credits include GABRIEL & ME, THE HARRY HILL MOVIE and MINDHORN (playing “Kenneth Branagh’s Producer”).

 

Gerard Horan

Ben Jonson

GERARD HORAN is an English actor who has previously appeared in six films directed by Kenneth Branagh: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN, A MIDWINTER’S TALE, AS YOU LIKE IT, CINDERELLA, and MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS. He also appeared on Branagh’s stage productions of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and “King Lear.”

Horan made his first film appearance in Stephen Frears’ MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE in 1985. Horan’s subsequent films include: SAMMY AND ROSIE GET LAID, HIDDEN CITY, CHICAGO JOE AND THE SHOWGIRL, MIDNIGHT MOVIE, IMMORTAL BELOVED, CROSSING THE BORDER, LES MISÉRABLES, THE LAST GREAT WILDERNESS, NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS, IMAGINE ME & YOU, OLIVER TWIST, BREAKING AND ENTERING, THE BANK JOB, MY WEEK WITH MARILYN, GAMBIT, and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.

He made his TV debut with a recurring role in “The Singing Detective. One of his best-known TV role in the UK is playing firefighter Leslie “Charisma” Appleby in the long-running TV series “London’s Burning.” Some of his more recent credits include “Dr. Who,” “Kingdom,” “Lark Rise to Candleford,” “Lewis,” “Casualty,” “Silk,” “Any Human Heart,” “DCI Banks,” “The Appropriate Adult,” “Dancing on the Edge,” “Family Tree,” “Fair Cop,” “New Tricks,” “Midsomer Murders,” “Mr. Sloane,” “Da Vinci’s Demons,” “Walter,” “From the Cradle to the Grave,” “Outlander,” “Little Boy Blue,” and the role of Terry in “The Detectorists.”

His stage credits include “That Day We Sang,” “Up to the Sun,” “Built on Sand” “Saved/The Pope’s Wedding,” “Rat in the Skull,” “A Whistle in the Dark,” “Man and Superman,” “Public Enemy,” “Look Back in Anger,” “Coriolanus,” “The Plough and the Stars,” “Blue Remembered Hills,” “The Weir,” “Richard III,” “Insignificance,” “A Miracle,” “Jerusalem,” “One Man Two Guvnors,” “All That Fall,” “Open Court,” “The Christmas Truce,” “The Vote,” “The Ferryman,” and “Strictly Ballroom.”

 

Jimmy Yuill

Edward Woolmer

JIMMY YUILL first worked with Kenneth Branagh in 1984 at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He then joined Branagh’s Renaissance Theatre Company in 1988 for such productions as “Much Ado About Nothing,” “As You Like It,” “Hamlet,” “Uncle Vanya,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “King Lear.” Most recently, Yuill played Old Shepherd in “The Winter’s Tale” at the Garrick Theatre and Banquo to Branagh’s Macbeth at the Park Avenue Armory in New York, both directed by Branagh.

He was directed by Branagh in the films HENRY V, AS YOU LIKE IT, LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST; MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN, and MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. He has also worked as a Performance Consultant on THE MAGIC FLUTE, JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT, CINDERELLA, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, and upcoming, ARTEMIS FOWL and ALL IS TRUE.

His other films include LOCAL HERO, DEATHWATCH, A SENSE OF FREEDOM, STRICTLY SINATRA, LADIES IN LAVENDER, THE ROCKET POST, RETREAT, WITHIN THE WHIRLWIND, PRINCESS K’AIULANI, and THE RAVEN.

Among his numerous TV roles, Yuill is best known for “Eastenders,” “Hamish Macbeth,” and for playing Doug Kersey on “Wycliffe.”

He was nominated for a Critics’ Award for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) for Best Actor in his one-man show “The Testament of Cresseid,” which he presented as part of Edinburgh International Festival in 2010.

In 2017, Jimmy produced the short film “Geoff,” which won awards at the Savannah, Sapporo, Montecatini, and Rhode Island film festivals.

 

Alex Macqueen

Sir Thomas Lucy

ALEX MACQUEEN is an English TV, film, and radio actor. He appeared as the Royal Crier in Kenneth Branagh’s film CINDERELLA.

On British TV, he is best known for his roles as Julius Nicholson in Armando Iannucci’s series “The Thick of It,” as Neil’s Dad in “The Inbetweeners,” and will soon be seen as Colonel Ribbindane in the next series of “The Durrells.”

His film credits include THE EMPEROR’S WIFE, KEEPING MUM, MAGICIANS, TUESDAY, THE HIDE (Evening Standard Nomination, Best Actor), FOUR LIONS, BONDED BY BLOOK, CHALET GIRL, YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER, THE INBETWEENERS, GAMBIT, JACK THE GIANT SLAYER, I GIVE IT A YEAR, FEAR OF WATER, ONE CHANCE, DARE TO BE WILD, THE INBETWEENERS 2, SLOW WEST, YOUTH, NASTY WOMEN, and HORRIBLE HISTORIES: THE MOVIE.

His more recent TV credits include: “Come Fly With Me,” “Todd Margaret,” “Campus,” “Lewis,” “Rock and Chips,” “Holy Flying Circus,” “Cricklewood Greats,” “Black Mirror” “This is England ‘88,” “Mr. Stink,” “Plebs,” “Playhouse Presents,” Crackanory,” “Trying Again,” “Pompidou,” “The Delivery Man,” “Together,” “Hunderby,” “Drunk History: UK,” “Hoff the Record,” “Peaky Blinders,” “Babs,” “Hospital People,” “Silent Witness,” “High & Dry,” “Hang Ups,” “Eric, Ernie & Me,” “Sally4Ever,” and “The Durrell IV.”

 

Eleanor de Rohan

Margaret Wheeler

ELEANOR DE ROHAN was born in Frankfurt, Germany. She adored acting from an early age and took as many acting classes as she could while living in Prague, Singapore and Germany for a second time. She joined the National Youth Theatre in the UK at age 13. While at school she also excelled in mathematics, but she chose acting as a career and went on to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), graduating in 2017.

Since graduating, Eleanor has worked with Kenneth Branagh as Guildastern in his production of “Hamlet,” and will appear in his upcoming film ARTEMIS FOWL.

She has also appeared in “Mary Stuart” at the Almeida, as well as “HAMM” and “Portrait” for the RADA festival.

While in training Eleanor appeared in “Girls and Dolls,” “Vinegar Tom,” “A Little Night Music” and “Strange Orchestra” as well as the short film, “Prodigal,” which has gone on to win the Award for Best International Short at the Southeast New England Film Festival (SENE) in Rhode Island.

 

Filmmakers

Ted Gagliano

Producer

TED GAGLIANO (Producer) is on sabbatical from his position as President of Feature Post Production for Twentieth Century Fox. During his years at Fox, Gagliano has overseen post production on over 700 films and spearheaded the Mixed Reality efforts for the Fox Innovation Lab.

Under the umbrella of the Techtainment Fund of Incline Village, Gagliano is an avid investor in start-up companies that he believes will have an impact on medicine and entertainment. He serves on the board of UCLA’s Neurosurgery Department where he co-founded with his husband, Loic Bailly, the Golden Portals, an annual event that honors innovation in movies and medicine, and funds brain research.

Ted began his entertainment career at Princeton University as President of the musical comedy troupe, the Triangle Club.

 

Tamar Thomas

Producer

TAMAR THOMAS is the co-producer of The Kenneth Branagh Company.

She began working with Branagh in 1987, as Assistant Stage Manager on PUBLIC ENEMY, at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. In 1990 she became his assistant for the Renaissance Theatre Company World Tour, and since then has worked with him in various capacities on all his films and theatre projects, including serving as associate producer of THE MIDWINTER’S TALE, and producer for the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company’s season at the Garrick Theatre in 2015.

Tamar was born in Southampton, and studied stage management at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where she is now a member of the RADA Council.

 

Ben Elton

Screenplay

BEN ELTON is an award-winning novelist, playwright, television writer, screenwriter and lyricist. He is also a theatre, screen and TV director, a stand-up comedian, and actor. He recently created “Upstart Crow,” a situation comedy about the life of Shakespeare, starring David Mitchell, Liza Tarbuck, and Gemma Whelan, which is currently in its third season for the BBC. Emma Thompson guest starred in the 2017 Christmas special and Kenneth Branagh guest stars in the upcoming 2018 Christmas Special.

For his TV work, Elton has won three BAFTA Awards (Best Comedy Series, “The Young Ones,” “Blackadder the Third,” and “Blackadder Goes Forth”), The Royal Television Society Writer’s Award (“The Man From Auntie”), and a British Comedy Award (“The Thin Blue Line”). He was honored with the Golden Rose Award at the European Television festival in Lucerne Switzerland for his lifetime contribution to the Television Arts.

His theatre writing includes “Gasping,” “Silly Cow,” and “Popcorn” and the musicals “The Beautiful Game,” (book and lyrics with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber), “We Will Rock You” (book, music by Queen), “Tonight’s The Night” (book,” music by Rod Stewart and others), “Love Never Dies” (co-wrote book, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber). Elton won Olivier Awards for “Popcorn” and “We Will Rock You,” and a Critics Circle Award for “The Beautiful Game” (Best Musical). Elton has been one of the UK and Australia’s most successful stand-up live acts for almost thirty years. In 1990, he co-hosted the Nelson Mandela Celebration at Wembley Stadium. He hosted the Brits in 1997 and 1998 and The Royal Variety Performance in 2000. He writes all his own material.

He has written fifteen novels, many of them #1 bestsellers in the UK, and all of which have been published worldwide: Stark, Gridlock, This Other Eden, Popcorn, Blast From The Past, Inconceivable, Dead Famous, High Society, Past Mortem, The First Casualty, Chart Throb, Blind Faith, Meltdown, Two Brothers, and Time and Time Again. For his work as a novelist, he won the Crime Writer’s Association Gold Dagger Award for Crime Fiction (Popcorn), W.H. Smith People’s Choice Fiction Award (High Society), the Prix Polar International Crime Writer Award (Amitiès Mortelles, French edition of Past Mortem).

Elton has written and directed two films, MAYBE BABY, based on his novel Inconceivable and starring Hugh Laurie, Joely Richardson, and Emma Thompson; and THREE SUMMERS, which recently won the Prix Du Jury at the Cannes Écrans Cinéma Festival.

He was born in Catford, South East London, and studied drama at the University of Manchester. He is married and has three children.

 

Zac Nicholson B.S.C.

Director of Photography

ZAC NICHOLSON B.S.C. recently shot Armando Iannucci’s acclaimed film THE DEATH OF STALIN. His other credits include Mike Newell’s THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY, Trevor Nunn’s RED JOAN (with Judi Dench), Esther May Campbell’s LIGHT YEARS, Tom Harper’s WAR BOOK, and Nick Whitfield’s SKELETONS, which won Best New British Feature Award at the EIFF. Upcoming for Nicholson is a reteaming with Iannucci on THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD, and Philippa Lowthorpe’s MISBEHAVIOUR, starring Keira Knightley.

Nicholson’s TV work includes “The Hollow Crown,” “Capital,” “Black Mirror” (on “The Entire History of You” and “White Bear”), “The Rack Pack,” and the miniseries “The Honourable Woman,” for which he received a BAFTA Craft nomination for Photography and Lighting. In 2015, he won a BAFTA Television Craft Award, which he shared with the Entertainment Craft Team for his work on “The Sound of Music Live,” directed by Coky Giedroyc.

Nicholson began his career working various jobs in the Camera department, before becoming a Camera Operator. As a Camera Operator, he collaborated with many of the world’s leading filmmakers, including Shane Meadows (on THIS IS ENGLAND), Stephen Poliakoff (on GLORIOUS 39) and Tom Hooper (on THE KING’S SPEECH and LES MISÉRABLES).

 

James Merifield

Production Designer

JAMES MERIFIELD began his career as a Theatre Designer, which led him to work closely with director Ken Russell on various operas at the English National Opera and Bonn Opera House.

This collaboration proved a springboard for James’ move into television and film, designing his first drama, Ken Russell’s miniseries “Lady Chatterley” for the BBC.

Most recently Merifield designed MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS starring Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie; Mike Newell’s THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY starring Lily James; BREATHE, directed by Andy Serkis and starring Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy: and FINAL PORTRAIT, directed by Stanley Tucci and starring Geoffrey Rush and Armie Hammer.

Merifield was nominated for his first BAFTA Television Award for Best Production Design on Channel 4’s “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby,” and went on to win an Emmy for Outstanding Art Direction for the BBC’s “Little Dorrit,” shown in the US on PBS.

His previous film credits include: BRIGHTON ROCK, directed by Rowan Joffe, with Sam Riley and Helen Mirren; Terence Davies’ THE DEEP BLUE SEA, starring Rachel Weisz; A LITTLE CHAOS, directed by Alan Rickman and starring Kate Winslet; AUSTENLAND, starring Keri Russell; and Richard Laxton’s EFFIE GRAY, with Dakota Fanning and Emma Thompson.

 

Úna Ní Dhonghaíle

Editor

ÚNA NÍ DHONGHAÍLE is a multi-award-winning editor who has worked on numerous prestigious television dramas and feature films, notably the acclaimed Netflix series “The Crown.”

Her recent feature film credits include the Sony Pictures Classics release STAN & OLLIE, directed by Jon S. Baird and starring John C. Reilly and Steve Coogan, and ROSIE, directed by Paddy Breathnach.

In 2018, Dhonghaíle won a BAFTA, Royal Television Society, and IFTA award for her work on the critically acclaimed “Three Girls” miniseries, directed by Philippa Lowthorpe. She was twice nominated for BAFTA and Irish Film and Television Awards for Best Editing for the TV series “Ripper Street” and “The Missing.” She was also nominated for a BAFTA and RTS awards for the TV movie “White Girl,” directed by Hettie MacDonald.

Dhonghaíle’s other television credits include “The Fixer,” “The Tunnel,” “Wallender” (starring Kenneth Branagh), “Upstairs and Downstairs, “Ice Cream Girls, “Doctor Who,” and “Quirke.”

Her upcoming projects include Tom Shankland’s TV adaptation of “Les Misérables,” starring Dominic West and David Oyelowo, and the feature MISBEHAVIOUR, directed by Philippa Lowthorpe and starring Keira Kneightley and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

 

Patrick Doyle

Composer

PATRICK DOYLE is a classically trained composer. He graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in 1975, where he was made a Fellow in 2001.

After many years composing for theatre, radio and television, Doyle joined the Renaissance Theatre Company as composer and musical director in 1987, composing for such plays as “Hamlet,” “As You Like It,” and “Look Back in Anger.” In 1989, director Kenneth Branagh commissioned him to compose the score for the feature film HENRY V, and they have subsequently collaborated on numerous pictures, including DEAD AGAIN, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN, HAMLET, LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST, AS YOU LIKE IT, SLEUTH, THOR, JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT, CINDERELLA, and MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (for which he received an ASCAP Top Film Award), and upcoming, ARTEMIS FOWL. Doyle and Branagh’s collaboration within theatre and film has continued to this day, and his score for ALL IS TRUE marks their thirteenth film collaboration.

Doyle has scored over fifty international feature films, including RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, BRAVE, HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE, GOSFORD PARK, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, INDOCHINE, CARLITO’S WAY, and A LITTLE PRINCESS. His work has led to collaborations with some of the most acclaimed directors in the world, including Regis Wargnier, Brian De Palma, Alfonso Cuaròn, Ang Lee, Chen Kaige, Mike Newell and Robert Altman.

He has received two Oscar®, two Golden Globes®, one BAFTA, and two Cesar nominations, as well as winning the 1989 Ivor Novello Award for Best Film Theme for HENRY V. He has also been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from The World Soundtrack Awards and Scottish BAFTA, the Henry Mancini Award from ASCAP and the PRS Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Music.

Most recently, Doyle completed the scores for MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, SGT. STUBBY: AN AMERICAN HERO and THE EMOJI MOVIE.

 

Michael O'Connor

Costumes

MICHAEL O’CONNOR has worked with some of the UK’s most talented directors. His work with Saul Dibb on THE DUCHESS, starring Keira Knightley, won him the Oscar®, BAFTA and Costume Designers’ Guild Awards. He also received nominations for Oscar, BAFTA and Costume Designer Guild Awards for Ralph Fiennes’ THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, starring Fiennes and Felicity Jones, and Cary Fukanaga’s JANE EYRE, starring Mia Wasikowska.

His other film credits include Sarah Gavron's adaptation of BRICK LANE; Bharat Nalluri's MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY, starring Amy Adams and Frances McDormand; and the BAFTA-winning THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND, starring Academy Award-winner Forest Whitaker. He has also designed costume for Pete Travis’ comic book adaptation DREDD, Justin Chadwick’s TULIP FEVER, Matthew Heineman’s A PRIVATE WAR, and upcoming, Thomas Clay’s FANNY LYE DELIVER’D.

 

Vanessa White

Hair and Makeup Design

VANESSA WHITE honed her craft at the BBC for nine years and has been freelance for 23 years, during which she won a BAFTA plus four BAFTA nominations and six Royal Television Society awards.

White’s film credits as Hair and Makeup Designer include A PASSION IN THE DESERT, BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY, ALPHA PAPA, THE HARRY HILL MOVIE, and GRAVITY.

White has a reputation for being the go-to person for designing the creations of memorable characters and lookalikes for the leading British comedians, including Sacha Baron Cohen, Tracey Ullman, Steve Coogan, Paul Whitehouse, Harry Enfield, Catherine Tate, David Walliams, French & Saunders, Armando Iannucci, Julia Davis, Peter Kay, Matt Lucas, Harry Hill, Rob Brydon, and The League of Gentlemen. She has also worked with Lady Gaga and Adele, to name but a few.

Her favorite work is to take a well-known face and transform it into a lookalike or unrecognizably different and “out of the box” character to complement and bring to life the script or story.

White met Kenneth Branagh on a one-day shot for the Christmas special of Ben Elton’s Shakespeare themed TV comedy “Upstart Crow.” From this very brief meeting he offered her ALL IS TRUE.

 

Lucy Bevan

Casting

LUCY BEVAN has previously teamed with Kenneth Branagh on CINDERELLA, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, and upcoming, ARTEMIS FOWL. She also cast his stage productions of “Hamlet,” “The Entertainer,” “A Winter’s Tale,” “Romeo & Juliet,” “The Painkiller” and “Harlequinade.”

Bevan began her career working with famed British casting director Mary Selway. Her other film credits include THE DUCHESS, AN EDUCATION, SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN, 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE, MALEFICENT, MR. HOLMES, ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, SNOWDEN, THEIR FINEST, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, GHOST IN THE SHELL, BREATHE, THE MERCY, READY PLAYER ONE, CHRISTOPHER ROBIN, and upcoming, THE GOOD LIAR, THE VOYAGE OF DOCTOR DOOLITTLE, and CATS.

 

Emily Brockmann

Casting

EMILY BROCKMANN has her first film credit as Co-Casting Director on ALL IS TRUE. She also worked on the Kenneth Branagh theatre season, co-casting the production of “Hamlet” at RADA.

Brockmann worked with Lucy Bevan on MR. HOLMES, ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, SNOWDEN, BREATHE, READY PLAYER ONE, CHRISTOPHER ROBIN, and upcoming, THE GOOD LIAR, THE VOYAGE OF DOCTOR DOOLITTLE, and CATS. She recently cast the short film “Balls,” directed by Lily Cole.”

Brockman was born in London, went to school in West London, and studied history at University College London (UCL). She learned about casting when she met Lucy Bevan at a careers evening when she was 15, and has been working to gain experience ever since. In addition to Bevan, she has worked for casting directors Nina Gold and Robert Sterne in London and Liz Lewis in New York.