CANR
WORK TITLE: Dull Margaret
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Broadbent, James
BIRTHDATE: 5/24/1949
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY: English
LAST VOLUME:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Broadbent
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born May 24, 1949, in Holton cum Beckering, Lincolnshire, England; son of Roy Doreen Findlay Broadbent; married Anastasia Lewis (a painter), 1987.
EDUCATION:Graduated from London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, 1972.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Actor. Actor in movies, including The Good Father, 1985, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, 1987, Erik the Viking, 1989, Life Is Sweet, 1990, The Crying Game, 1992, Richard III, 1995, The Secret Agent, 1996, Topsy-Turvy, 1999, Bridget Jones’s Diary, 2001, Moulin Rouge, 2001, Iris, 2001, Gangs of New York, 2002, Around the World in 80 Days, 2004, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, 2004, Robots, 2005, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, 2005, Hot Fuzz, 2007, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, 2008, The Young Victoria, 2009, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 2009, Another Year, 2010, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, 2011, The Iron Lady, 2011, Cloud Atlas, 2012, Get Santa, 2014, The Legend of Tarzan, 2016, Bridget Jones’s Baby, 2016, Ethel & Ernest, 2016, Paddington 2, 2017, and Black 47, 2018. Actor in television movies, including Messiah, 1984, Revolution!!, 1989, The Last Englishman, 1995, Comic Relief: Doctor Who: The Curse of Fatal Death, 1999, The Gathering Storm, 2002, (and executive producer) The Young Visiters, 2003, Longford, 2006, and King Lear, 2018. Actor in television series, including Not the Nine O’Clock News, 1979, Play for Today, 1979-82, BBC2 Playhouse, 1980, Only Fools and Horses…, 1983-91, Happy Families, 1985, Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV, 1985-87, Screen One, 1991-93, Gone to Seed, 1992, The Boss, 1995-2000, Percy the Park Keeper, 1996-99, The Street, 2006, War & Peace, 2016, and Game of Thrones, 2017. Has appeared on various radio programs; has acted in numerous stage plays.
AWARDS:Evening Standard British Film Award for best actor and ALFS Award for British Actor of the Year, both 2001, both for Topsy-Turvy; Academy Award for best actor in a supporting role and Golden Globe Award for best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a motion picture, both 2002, both for Iris; BAFTA TV Award for best performance by an actor in a supporting role, 2002, for Moulin Rouge; Richard Harris Award, British Independent Film Awards, 2006; BAFTA TV Award and Golden Globe for best performance by an actor in a miniseries or a motion picture made for television, 2007, both for Longford; International Emmy Award for best actor, 2007, for The Street; Royal Television Society Television Award for best actor, 2011, for Any Human Heart; numerous award nominations.
WRITINGS
Has also written for television movies and shorts, including Messiah, 1984, Marjorie and the Preacherman, 1987, Revolution!!, 1989, A Sense of History, 1992, and Big Day, 1999.
SIDELIGHTS
Jim Broadbent is an British actor. He has won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA TV Award for his many roles throughout his career. Broadbent is best known for his roles in films, including Topsy-Turvy, Iris, Moulin Rouge, The Gathering Storm, Another Year, The Iron Lady, Cloud Atlas, and two “Harry Potter” movies.
With Dix, Broadbent published the graphic novel Dull Margaret in 2018. The hermit Margaret lives in the marshes and uses dark magic to get what she wants. Despite having gold and many lovers, her madness prevents her from ever feeling satisfied.
A contributor to Publishers Weekly opined that “the ruthless, brutal Margaret proves a satisfying antiheroine for this vicious morality play.” Writing in the New York Journal of Books, Carol Katz commented that “this book has all the elements of a graphic novel. Every page has boxes of varying sizes with full color illustrations, the colors and contour lines covey the mood of the characters and dialog is minimal, leaving much to our imaginations. There is one page that shows Margaret’s face in longitudinal lines as if she were looking into a distorted mirror. It’s also a good read.” Reviewing the graphic novel in the Adventures in Poor Taste website, Chris Coplan reasoned that “Margaret is the story’s antagonist and protagonist wrapped into one un-charming mold. You feel for her plight just as much as you hate her for, say, mutilating dead bodies and abusing a poor mute fella. There’s real heartache attached as you recognize the depths of her pursuits for power and gold and good old fashioned vengeance. You may also find yourself celebrating and then shaking your head in disappointment (at both yourself and in general) at the somewhat nebulous ending. But that’s what makes Margaret so compelling.” Writing on the Comics Beat website, John Seven mentioned that “Broadbent’s story is elusive. You know what is going on, but the presentation of it is alien and frightening, and that’s entirely due to the masterful artwork by Dix. Though it might be a temptation for some to evoke the artistic influences for the story in a direct way, Dix renders this a story guided by its own visual tone, its own illustrative world.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Guardian (London, England), July 6, 2018, Claire Armitstead, “‘Her Tragedy Is to Look Like Me’: Jim Broadbent’s Graphic Novel.”
Publishers Weekly, July 16, 2018, review of Dull Margaret, p. 50.
ONLINE
Adventures in Poor Taste, http://www.adventuresinpoortaste.com/ (July 16, 2018), Chris Coplan, review of Dull Margaret.
Biography, https://www.biography.com/ (September 10, 2018), author profile.
Comics Beat, http://www.comicsbeat.com/ (August 14, 2018), John Seven, review of Dull Margaret.
New York Journal of Books, https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/ (September 3, 2018), Carol Katz, review of Dull Margaret.
Jim Broadbent
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Jim Broadbent
Broadbent in 2007
Born
James Broadbent
24 May 1949 (age 69)
Holton cum Beckering, Lincolnshire, England
Education
London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
Occupation
Actor
Years active
1972–present
Spouse(s)
Anastasia Lewis (m. 1987)
James Broadbent (born 24 May 1949) is an English actor.[1] He won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his supporting role as John Bayley in the feature film Iris (2001), as well as winning a BAFTA TV Award and a Golden Globe for his leading role as Lord Longford in the television film Longford (2006).
Broadbent received four BAFTA Film Award nominations and won one for his performance in Moulin Rouge! (2001). He was also nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards and four Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Broadbent portrayed Horace Slughorn in the fantasy films Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011). He joined the cast of the television series Game of Thrones, playing a role of Archmaester Ebrose, in the seventh season (2017). His other notable roles were in Topsy-Turvy (1999), The Gathering Storm (2002), And When Did You Last See Your Father? (2007), Another Year (2010), and The Iron Lady (2012).
Contents
1
Early life
2
Career
3
Personal life
4
Filmography
4.1
Film
4.2
Television
5
Awards and nominations
5.1
Other awards and honours
6
References
7
External links
Early life[edit]
Broadbent was born in Holton cum Beckering,[2] in Lincolnshire, the second son of Doreen "Dee" Broadbent (née Findlay), a sculptor, and Roy Laverick Broadbent, an artist, sculptor, interior designer and furniture maker.[3] Broadbent's parents were both amateur actors who co-founded the Holton Players acting troupe at Holton.[4] The two have been described by the BBC as conscientious objectors who "worked the land" rather than participate in World War II.[3] In Wickenby, a former Methodist Chapel was purchased in 1970 by Holton Players, who converted it into a 100-seat theatre, named Broadbent Theatre in memory of Roy Broadbent, who designed the conversion.
Jim Broadbent had a twin sister who died at birth. Broadbent was educated at Leighton Park School, a Quaker school in Reading,[5] and briefly attended art college before transferring to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He graduated in 1972.[6] His early stage work included appearances as Patrick Barlow's assistant in the mock National Theatre of Brent.
Career[edit]
Broadbent at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival
Broadbent's early stagework included a number of productions for The National Theatre of Brent as the downtrodden assistant Wallace to Patrick Barlow's self-important actor/manager character Desmond Olivier Dingle. Broadbent and Barlow played many male and female character roles in comically less-than-epic tellings of historical and religious stories, such as The Complete Guide to Sex, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Revolution!!, and All The World's A Globe. These were hits at the Edinburgh Fringe, in London, and on tour. Later stage work included the original productions of Kafka's Dick (1986) and Our Country's Good (1988) at the Royal Court Theatre and work for the Royal National Theatre including "The Government Inspector". Work on the stage with Mike Leigh includes Goosepimples and Ecstasy.
He had worked with Stephen Frears in The Hit (1984) and Terry Gilliam in Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985) before establishing himself in Mike Leigh's Life Is Sweet (1990). He proved his ability as a character actor in films including The Crying Game (1992), Enchanted April (1992), Bullets over Broadway (1994), The Borrowers (1997), and Little Voice (1998) before taking a leading role in another Mike Leigh film, Topsy-Turvy (1999), playing dramatist Sir William S. Gilbert. He played "The Shy Doctor" in the 1999 Comic Relief parody Doctor Who sketch, Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death. In 2001, Broadbent starred in three of the year's most successful films: Bridget Jones's Diary; Moulin Rouge!, for which he won a BAFTA; and Iris, for which he won an Oscar for his portrayal of John Bayley.[7]
Broadbent voiced Madame Gasket in the 2005 film Robots. Broadbent also appeared as DCI Roy Slater, an associate character in the enormously popular sitcom Only Fools and Horses. The character appeared in three episodes over an eight-year period. He had originally been offered the lead role of Del Boy in the series, but he turned it down due to other commitments. He has also played a role in the Inspector Morse series. Other comic roles include the lead role in the sitcom The Peter Principle and occasional guest appearances in Not The Nine O'Clock News, Only Fools and Horses, and Victoria Wood As Seen on TV. He portrayed Don Speekingleesh in "The Queen of Spain's Beard" in the first series of The Black Adder in 1983. He also played the role of Prince Albert in Blackadder's Christmas Carol, first broadcast in 1988. He joined Rowan Atkinson in his Spider-Man spoof Spider-Plant Man, as a disgruntled Batman, jealous of Spider-Plant Man's success.
Broadbent played the lead role of the TV film Wide-Eyed and Legless.[8] Based on a true story, the drama tells of Deric Longden's wife, Diana, and her fight against a mysterious wasting illness which turned out to be myalgic encephalomyelitis. It began as a type of flu but it grew progressively worse. She was subject to blackouts and became so debilitated that she could barely get out of her wheelchair. It led to years of pain and paralysis that ended in her death.
Broadbent portrayed the title role in the Channel 4 drama Longford in October 2006, earning a BAFTA TV Award, a Golden Globe, and a 2007 Emmy nomination for his performance as Frank Pakenham (1905–2001), Earl of Longford, which was centred on Longford's ultimately unsuccessful campaign for the parole of Myra Hindley from her life imprisonment for the Moors Murders.
Broadbent appeared as Inspector Frank Butterman in Hot Fuzz in 2007.
The Broadbent Theatre, Wickenby, Lincolnshire, named after Roy Broadbent, father of Jim. Photographed 2006.
He appeared in the original radio production of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, playing the character Vroomfondel. Forty years later, he took the role of Marvin in the Hexagonal Phase radio series.[9] He was also a regular in Stephen Fry's radio comedy show Saturday Night Fry, which aired on BBC Radio 4 in 1988.
Broadbent played Dean Charles Stanforth in the fourth film in the Indiana Jones series, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; King William IV in The Young Victoria; and Horace Slughorn in the sixth Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, as well as the final movie in the series Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.[10] In 2008, he starred as pro-Newtonian physicist Sir Oliver Lodge in the fact-based single drama Einstein and Eddington for the BBC.
In 2009, he portrayed Sam Longson, chairman of Derby County football club in the 1960s and 1970s, in the film The Damned United; the starring character in the film was football manager Brian Clough, played by Michael Sheen.
In 2010, he provided the voice for the character Major Mouse in a series of radio advertisements and one produced for television for an energy company, E.ON, for their eonenergyfit.com website campaign. He also starred as the older Logan Mountstuart in the TV adaptation of William Boyd's novel Any Human Heart.
He had a lead role in Exile, a BBC One drama, starring John Simm and written by Danny Brocklehurst.[11]
In 2012, he played Denis Thatcher opposite Oscar-winner Meryl Streep as the former Prime Minister in The Iron Lady.
In 2016, he was cast in the seventh season of the HBO series Game of Thrones.[12][13]
On 28 May 2018 he is due to play Gloucester in the BBC Two's of King Lear.[14]
Personal life[edit]
Broadbent has been married to painter and former theatre designer Anastasia Lewis[15] since 1987. He is an atheist.[16]
Filmography[edit]
Film[edit]
Year
Title
Role
Notes
1971
The Go-Between
Spectator at Cricket Match
Uncredited[17]
1978
The Life Story of Baal
Woodcutter
The Shout
Asylum Fielder
1979
Long Distance Information
Mackaness
The Passage
German Soldier
Uncredited
1980
Breaking Glass
Station Porter
Games Without Frontiers
Stewart
1981
The Dogs of War
Film crew
Time Bandits
Compere
1983
Birth of a Nation
Geoff Fig
Dead on Time
Priest
Short film
1984
The Hit
Barrister
1985
Brazil
Dr. Jaffe
The Good Father
Roger Miles
1987
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
Jean Pierre Dubois
Running Out of Luck
1988
Vroom
Donald
1989
Erik the Viking
Ernest the Viking
1990
Life Is Sweet
Andy
1992
Enchanted April
Frederick Arbuthnot
The Crying Game
Col
1993
Wide-Eyed and Legless
Deric Longden
Prince Cinders
Ugly Brother
Voice
1994
Bullets over Broadway
Warner Purcell
Princess Caraboo
Mr. Worrall
Widows' Peak
Con Clancy
1995
Richard III
The Duke of Buckingham
The Last Englishman
Col. Alfred D. Wintle
Rough Magic
Doc Ansell
1996
The Secret Agent
Chief Inspector Heat
1997
The Borrowers
Pod Clock
Smilla's Sense of Snow
Dr. Lagermann
1998
The Avengers
Mother
Little Voice
Mr. Boo
1999
Topsy-Turvy
W. S. Gilbert
2001
Bridget Jones's Diary
Colin Jones
Moulin Rouge!
Harold Zidler
Iris
John Bayley
2002
Gangs of New York
Boss Tweed
Nicholas Nickleby
Mr. Wackford Squeers
2003
Bright Young Things
Drunk Major
Anna Spud
Dad
Short film
2004
Around the World in 80 Days
Lord Kelvin
Vanity Fair
Mr. Osborne
Tooth
The Rabbit
Voice
Vera Drake
Judge
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
Colin Jones
2005
Robots
Madame Gasket
Voice
Valiant
Sergeant
Voice
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Professor Kirke
The Magic Roundabout
Brian
Voice
2006
Art School Confidential
Jimmy
2007
Hot Fuzz
Inspector Frank Butterman
And When Did You Last See Your Father?
Arthur Morrison
2008
Free Jimmy
Igor Stromowskij
English dub
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Dean Charles Stanforth
Inkheart
Fenoglio
Tales of the Riverbank
G.P.
Voice
2009
The Young Victoria
King William IV
The Damned United
Sam Longson
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Horace Slughorn
Perrier's Bounty
Jim McCrea
2010
Another Year
Tom
Animals United
Winston
English dub
2011
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
Horace Slughorn
Arthur Christmas
Malcolm "Santa" Claus
Voice
The Iron Lady
Denis Thatcher
2012
Cloud Atlas
Captain Molyneux
Vyvyan Ayrs
Timothy Cavendish
Korean Musician
Prescient 2
2013
Closed Circuit
Attorney General
Filth
Dr. Rossi
Le Week-End
Nick Burrows
The Harry Hill Movie
Bill the Cleaner
The Phone Call
Stanley
Voice
Short film
2014
Postman Pat: The Movie
Mr. Brown [18][19]
Voice
Paddington
Samuel Gruber
Get Santa
Santa Claus
Big Game
Herbert
2015
Brooklyn
Father Flood
The Lady in the Van
Underwood
The Weather Inside
Britischer Botschafter
2016
Eddie the Eagle
BBC Commentator
The Legend of Tarzan
British Prime Minister
Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods[20]
Julius Caesar
English dub
Bridget Jones's Baby
Colin Jones
Ethel & Ernest
Ernest Briggs
Voice
2017
The Sense of an Ending
Tony Webster
Paddington 2[21]
Samuel Gruber
Mary and the Witch's Flower
Doctor Dee
English dub
2018
Black 47
Lord Kilmichael
Magik
Lewis Clark
Voice
2019
The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle
Filming
Television[edit]
Year
Title
Role
Notes
1979
Not the Nine O'Clock News
Union negotiator
Sketch: "Final Demands"
1982
Objects of Affection
Cemetery Attendant
Episode: "Our Winnie"
1982
Bird of Prey
DI Stanley Richardson
Episode: "Input Classified"
1982
Walter
Joseph (Orderly)
Television film
1983
The Black Adder
Don Speekingleesh
Episode: "The Queen of Spain's Beard"
1983
Walter and June
Joseph (Orderly)
Television film
1983, 1985
1991
Only Fools and Horses
Det. Chief Insp. Roy Slater
3 episodes
1984
Crown Court
Robert MacBride
Episode: "Whisper Who Dares: Part 1"
1985
Happy Families
Dalcroix
3 episodes
1985
Silas Marner
Jem Rodney
Television film
1986
Screen Two
Gutling
Episode: "The Insurance Man"
1987
Victoria Wood as Seen on TV
the Doctor
Television special
1988
Tales of the Unexpected
Mr. Lovejoy
Episode: "The Facts of Life"
1988
Theatre Night
Maitre Jacques
Episode: "The Miser"
1988
Dramarama
Uncle Keith
Episode: "Making Waves"
1988
Blackadder's Christmas Carol
Prince Albert
Television special
1989
Revolution!!
Wallace
Television film; also writer
1989
Victoria Wood
Alan Hammond
Episode: "Staying In"
1990
Omnibus
Postman Roulin
Episode: "Van Gogh"
1991
Gone to the Dogs
Jim Morley
6 episodes
1991
Murder Most Horrid
Selwyn Proops
Episode: "A Determined Woman"
1991
Performance
Carmello
Episode: "Nona"
1991, 1993
Screen One
Deric Longden / Grocer
2 episodes
1992
A Sense of History
The 23rd Earl of Leete
Television film; also writer
1992
Inspector Morse
Charlie Bennett
Episode: "Absolute Conviction"
1993
The Comic Strip Presents
George
Episode: "Detectives on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown"
1994
Perpetual Motion - The Ford Transit
Narrator
Voice
1995–2000
The Peter Principle
Peter Duffley
13 episodes
1996–1999
Percy the Park Keeper
Percy
Voice
18 episodes
1997–1998
Brambly Hedge
Basil
Voice
2 episodes
1999
Doctor Who: Curse of Fatal Death
Credited as The Shy Doctor
Television special
2002
The Gathering Storm
Desmond Morton
Television film
2003
The Young Visiters
Alfred Salteena
Television film
2003
And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself
Harry Aitken
Television film
2004
Pride
Eddie
Voice
Television film
2005
Spider-Plant Man
Batman
Television short
2006
The Street
Stan McDermott
3 episodes
2006
Longford
Lord Longford
Television film
2008
Einstein and Eddington
Sir Oliver Lodge
Television film
2008
Lost and Found
Narrator
Voice
Television film
2010
Any Human Heart
Logan Mountstuart (older)
4 episodes
2011
Exile
Sam Ronstadt
3 episodes
2013
The Great Train Robbery
Tommy Butler
Television film
2015
London Spy
Scottie
5 episodes
2015
The Go-Between
Old Leo Colston
Television film
2015–present
Teletubbies
Trumpets
Voice
2016
War & Peace
Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky
5 episodes
2017–present
Game of Thrones
Archmaester Ebrose
4 episodes
2018
King Lear
Earl of Gloucester
Television film
Awards and nominations[edit]
Year
Title
Award
1998
Little Voice
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1999
Topsy-Turvy
Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actor
London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
Volpi Cup for Best Actor
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated—British Independent Film Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
2001
Moulin Rouge!
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor
Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Iris
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated—European Film Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
2002
Nicholas Nickleby
National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
The Gathering Storm
Television film
Nominated—Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor – Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film
2003
The Young Visiters
Television film
Nominated—British Academy Television Award for Best Actor
2006
The Street
International Emmy Award for Best Performance by an Actor
Longford
British Academy Television Award for Best Actor
Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Actor
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film
Nominated—Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated—Monte Carlo TV Festival for Television Films – Best Performance by an Actor
Nominated—Royal Television Society Award for Best Actor – Male
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film
2007
Nicholas Nickleby
Nominated—British Independent Film Award for Best Actor
Nominated—London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
2009
The Damned United
Nominated—British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actor
2010
Any Human Heart
Nominated—British Independent Film Award for Best Actor
Nominated—London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
Nominated—San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
Another Year
Royal Television Society Award for Best Actor – Male
Nominated—British Academy Television Award for Best Actor
2011
The Iron Lady
Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Other awards and honours[edit]
2004: Nominated Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for Winnie-the-Pooh.
2007: British Independent Film Awards—Richard Harris Award
Broadbent was offered an OBE in 2002, but he declined it, stating that there were more deserving recipients than actors and that the British Empire was not something he wanted to “celebrate”.[22][23]
Interview
'Her tragedy is to look like me': Jim Broadbent's graphic novel
Claire Armitstead
What does an Oscar-winning actor do with time on his hands? Team up with cartoonist Dix to tell the story of a vengeful 17th-century peasant
@carmitstead
Fri 6 Jul 2018 15.33 BST
Last modified on Mon 9 Jul 2018 10.56 BST
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‘I felt we shared a sense of humour’ … cartoonist Dix, left, and writer Jim Broadbent. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian
Y
ou may not think you know Dulle Griet but you probably do – she’s the breastplated peasant striding across a war-torn land towards the mouth of hell in one of the most famous paintings by the 16th-century Flemish master Bruegel the Elder. Bertolt Brecht saw her as his own Mother Courage – “the Fury defending her pathetic household goods with the sword. The world at the end of its tether.”
Jim Broadbent’s version of her is rather different. “She’s a plain woman whose tragedy is to look like me,” says the actor, whose dignified recent screen roles, such as the curmudgeonly camera seller in Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending or the tragic Gloucester in Richard Eyre’s King Lear, can lead one to overlook an important biographical detail: he cut his acting teeth in the 1980s as one half of a grandiosely named comedy duo, the National Theatre of Brent, hamming it up as Marie Antoinette or the Virgin Mary in uproarious re-enactments of the Bible and the French revolution.
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Margaret collecting for one of her potions. Photograph: Fantagraphics Books
Broadbent, as his friends have told him, is a “notoriously picky” actor, with the result that, while he seems to be a constant presence on stage and screen, he quite often has time on his hands. His original idea was to make a film of Dull Margaret, with himself in the title role. He wrote the screenplay and showed it around, but when the money failed to materialise and he began to feel the zeitgeist moving against female impersonation, he decided to put her in a graphic novel instead. And who better to approach for the illustrations than the Welsh cartoonist Dix, whose Roll up! Roll Up! comic strip for the Guardian had enlivened his day for two years in the early 00s with the antics of a ghoulish circus troupe. “I just felt we shared a sense of humour,” Broadbent says.
The Dull Margaret who stars in their new book may be Griet’s darkest incarnation yet. She’s a potato-faced wraith adrift in coastal marshlands who emerges naked from the sea and is not above chopping the hand off a hanged man to enrich a putrid love potion, which she smears on her face in an attempt to witch away her loneliness.
Leaping from the end of a jetty on a broomstick, she plops ignominiously into the sea, only to re-emerge two pages later in what looks like a gastroenterologist’s bad trip – a writhing tangle of orange dragon coils looming out of a palette of sombre greys and browns. And so her misfortunes continue, not least because of her own bad behaviour and her inability to choose between money and love.
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Is she mad? Or monstrous? No, no, no, protests Broadbent, gallantly. “I love her. I have total sympathy for her and enjoy her struggle. In a heightened way, she’s looking for what we all want: comfort, a reasonable standard of living and love. She gets robbed and abused and humiliated, and that sets her on a journey to take back control.”
It turns out that this is only the fourth time author and illustrator have met. They collaborated via early-morning emails, because Dix, who lives in Hay-on-Wye and has a day job at a computer software company, does his art work between 11pm and 4am.
Dix picks up the story, confessing that it took a while for him to “find” Margaret – “one was too fat, one was too neurotic and one was too vulnerable”. This was partly because he thought Broadbent was after someone who looked like one of his Roll Up! Roll Up! circus grotesques (the horizontal comic strip format rules out long, skinny people).
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Dull Margaret is unable to choose between money and love. Photograph: Fantagraphics Books
It didn’t help, he adds, that that at first Margaret had no nose. “She was beginning to look a bit aquatic, so we thought later on we’d give her a nose – which was a nice thing to do.” Broadbent’s blue eyes widen at this revelation. “I wasn’t aware of your nose, no-nose journey,” he fires back, though he agrees it was important that she had no fat on her – “she has no carbs in her diet”.
Given that Margaret is a mythical figure who rides a broomstick and stirs severed hands into potions, this sudden swerve into dietary literalism might seem surprising – but it underlines how deeply rooted the story is in the marshy coast of Lincolnshire, where Broadbent and his artist wife, Anastasia Lewis, have a cottage.
It’s also deeply indebted to Bosch’s hellscapes, Goya’s witches, Daumier’s pictures of travelling acrobats and Rembrandt’s glowering Low Country landscapes – not to mention Dix’s own oddball aesthetic. “Lack of pupils in eyes is something I’m quite fond of,” he says. “It makes people more expressive.” And creepy? “I don’t think it’s creepy at all – and I think that’s something we share.”
The pair’s shared sensibility is never more apparent than a six-frame sequence in which Margaret happens upon a bloated white animal corpse, which I mistakenly describe as a sheep. It’s a dog, Dix corrects. Well actually, says Broadbent, it was originally a pig. But they’re both delighted for it to be pointed out because it was the last page they composed. Its single speech bubble – “Cor, what a pong” – is a tribute to the Dandy and Beano comics that Broadbent loved as a child, and which helped to form his sense of comedy.
It’s all quite clownish, he says happily, striding out into the streets of Soho, where (despite being unexpectedly long and lean) he is immediately recognised by a giggling trader as Horace Slughorn, the “well-upholstered” potions master who turns himself into an armchair in the Harry Potter films. As another of his creative soulmates, the theatrical hell-raiser Ken Campbell, once put it: “It’s only true if it makes you laugh.”
Dull Margaret is published by Fantagraphics Books.
Quick Facts
Name
Jim Broadbent
Occupation
Actor
Birth Date
May 24, 1949 (age 69)
Education
London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts
Place of Birth
Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom
AKA
Jim Broadbent
Full Name
James Broadbent
Zodiac Sign
Gemini
Synopsis
Early Career
Career Highlights
Later Work
Cite This Page
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Jim Broadbent Biography
Actor (1949–)
Jim Broadbent is an Academy Award-winning British actor known for his work with Mike Leigh, Woody Allen and Terry Gilliam. His film credits include Topsy-Turvy, Iris and Moulin Rouge!.
Synopsis
Jim Broadbent was born on May 24, 1949, in Lincolnshire, England. After attending the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Broadbent launched a stage career, performing with British directors such as Trevor Nunn and Mike Leigh. He also delivered notable performances in film, including parts in Terry Gilliam's Brazil, Bullets Over Broadway and Topsy-Turvy. Broadbent won an Academy Award for best supporting actor for his performance in Iris, released in 2001. That same year, he played Harold Zidler, owner of the Moulin Rouge theater, in the musical Moulin Rouge!.
Early Career
Born on May 24, 1949, in Lincolnshire, England, Broadbent attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in London before launching a distinguished stage career in the 1970s, performing. He performed with several acclaimed British directors, including Trevor Nunn, Richard Eyre and Mike Leigh, whose long and fruitful professional association with Broadbent began with the plays Ecstasy (1979) and Goosepimples (1981).
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Broadbent made his feature film debut in 1978 with a small role in the British film The Shout. He worked steadily on stage and on television, appearing in the 1977 science-fiction TV miniseries Illuminatus, Leigh's 1982 television feature Birth of a Nation, and a 1985 BBC adaptation of Silas Marner. He also had small roles in two films by the eccentric but acclaimed director Terry Gilliam, Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985). In 1986, Broadbent landed his biggest film role to that date, receiving second billing to Anthony Hopkins in Mike Newell's feature directorial debut, The Good Father (1987).
Career Highlights
While Broadbent's first American film, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) was a somewhat inauspicious beginning, he continued to do high quality work in his native England. His first leading role in a film came in Mike Leigh's Life is Sweet (1990), a comedy about an offbeat family that won three awards from the National Society of Film Critics (U.S), including Best Film. In Newell's well reviewed Enchanted April (1992), Broadbent appeared alongside Miranda Richardson and Joan Plowright, among others, and in the highly controversial The Crying Game (1992), he played a kindly bartender.
In 1994, Broadbent appeared as a highly successful stage actor with a tendency to overeat in Woody Allen's acclaimed comedy Bullets Over Broadway, also starring John Cusack and Dianne Wiest. His talent for fine supporting and character roles was honed over the next several years, as he appeared in such films as Richard III (1995), also starring Ian McKellen; Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997); and most notably Little Voice (1998), also starring Michael Caine, for which he earned rave reviews for his performance as a nightclub owner.
In Topsy-Turvy, Mike Leigh's 1999 film about the legendary composers Gilbert & Sullivan, Broadbent turned in what many said was his finest performance, playing the blustery, ambitious William Gilbert. He won widespread acclaim for his performance in the film, including a London Film Critics' Circle Award for best British actor, and a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for best actor.
Later Work
Broadbent was everywhere on film in 2001, it seemed, as he had featured roles in three of the year's most impressive films. In the outlandish musical romance Moulin Rouge, starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor and directed by Baz Luhrmann, Broadbent played Zidler, the scheming owner of the cabaret of the film's title, with scene-stealing bravado. The role earned him BAFTA honors for Best Supporting Actor. In Bridget Jones' Diary, Broadbent toned down the flamboyance of the former role to play the dowdy father of the title character, played by Renee Zellweger.
Broadbent's most notable role, however, was as John Bailey, the writer and devoted husband of novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch (played by Judi Dench) in Iris, Richard Eyre's 2001 film based on Bayley's memoir, Elegy for Iris. Broadbent's portrayal of the long-suffering Bayley, who adores his wife's brilliant mind and struggles with her through the ravaging force of her Alzheimer's disease, earned him long-awaited recognition, including a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for best supporting actor.
In 2002, Broadbent appeared in Martin Scorsese's period epic Gangs of New York, playing the notorious 19th century New York politician Boss Tweed.
Broadbent is married to artist Anastasia Lewis.
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Citation Information
Article Title
Jim Broadbent Biography
Author
Biography.com Editors
Website Name
The Biography.com website
URL
https://www.biography.com/people/jim-broadbent-9542449
Access Date
September 3, 2018
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Last Updated
April 2, 2014
Original Published Date
April 2, 2014
Dull Margaret
Publishers Weekly. 265.29 (July 16, 2018): p50.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Dull Margaret
Jim Broadbentand Dix. Fantagraphics, $29.99 (128p) ISBN 978-1-68396-098-0
Greed is unquenchable in this bleak meditation on vengeance and desire by Dix (Klaxon) and Academy Award-winning actor Jim Broadbent. Margaret--dull marsh-dweller, eel-catcher, and hermit--pursues her desires through dark magic. She is granted lovers and gold in abundance, but she remains unsatisfied and swiftly descends into covetous madness. This is a determinedly desolate fable of mud, tarnish, and viscera, rendered in swampy earth tones with brief, rich interludes of red. Margaret's monologue comprises nearly every word in the book, and she mutters to herself constantly: as she reels in her catch, as she degrades a man in her thrall, and as she counts her ill-gotten riches. It is her chant, her ceaseless, abject assertion of "I'm Margaret, I'm Margaret... strong and clever," which lingers most hauntingly after the last page is turned. The book's inspiration, the painting Dulle Griet by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, is most faithfully represented in this aspect; Margaret's desperation mirrors Griet's frantic trek across a hellish landscape. The ruthless, brutal Margaret proves a satisfying antiheroine for this vicious morality play. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Dull Margaret." Publishers Weekly, 16 July 2018, p. 50. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A547266846/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=79d1204f. Accessed 2 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A547266846
Author(s):
Jim Broadbent
Release Date:
June 26, 2018
Publisher/Imprint:
Fantagraphics
Pages:
150
Buy on Amazon
Reviewed by:
Carol Katz
This is a graphic novel with a difference. The story is loosely based on a 16th century painting by the Flemish painter, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, titled: Dulle Griet. Dulle Griet or Mad Meg was a peasant who led a group of women into hell. The painting shows a woman with a sword advancing toward hell while her female followers look like they’re vandalizing a home. Bruegel may have been referring to the witch hunts that were prevalent in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. It seems like the authors wanted to depict what Margaret’s life may have been like when they saw this painting.
Unlike other graphic novels, the subject is dark and depressing. The first two pages show a naked woman lugging a rope toward a boat. She climbs into it and sails toward a cabin. The next few pages show her cooking food over a fire, her face a glowing pink. These pages have no dialogue. In fact, there is very little dialogue until page 69. The expression on Margaret’s face tells us that she’s struggling and angry. When we get further into the book, we see Margaret yelling at someone. She repeats her words: “Come on! Come on! Eh Up, Eh Up.” Her speech is that of an uneducated peasant.
With contour line and color, the authors give expression and feeling to their characters. For example, Margaret’s face shows sadness, loneliness, anger, confusion and worry.
The drawings are so graphic that we’re able to follow Margaret’s mind as it begins to unravel. Broadbent and Dix inject some humor when Margaret talks in nursery rhymes: “Alig- Salig, Wasp Stings, Olig-Folig, Flea Itches, Wontro-Hentro, Din Din Dan. Bring me a friend to love as soon as you can.” This technique gives us some relief from the depressing story.
Meg’s soul is so tortured that she cuts the hand off a man who is swimming in the water. When she meets another damaged soul, she ties him up in a hammock and throws him around, beats him with a rope, makes him climb a tree, and feeds him mush.
She doesn’t know how to befriend another person. She calls out: “I did call, I did . . . My name is Margaret, I’m Margaret.” She wants to take revenge on those who treated her badly. Although she’s so needy, when a group of people invite her in to eat, she says: “I do bear grudges. I have an awesome temper on occasion.”
Margaret is confused about her self-esteem. At one point she states that she’s worth it. “. . . you mustn’t take me too seriously because I’m not worth it.” Then later she states: “Well, I’m worth it . . . I don’t know why I said I wasn’t.”
She builds a scarecrow thinking that it will protect her from those evil people who tortured her. Page 108 has a scene similar to Bruegel’s painting. We see Margaret holding a box at a large opening and skeletons coming up from hell to haunt her. This is a scary scene. At this point Margaret is finding the world unsparing when she tries seek kindness and compassion.
When she finally admits that she loves the man whom she tortured, it’s too late.
This book has all the elements of a graphic novel. Every page has boxes of varying sizes with full color illustrations, the colors and contour lines covey the mood of the characters and dialog is minimal, leaving much to our imaginations. There is one page that shows Margaret’s face in longitudinal lines as if she were looking into a distorted mirror. It’s also a good read.
Some questions came to my mind. Is Margaret a witch using fire to purge her soul? Or is she schizophrenic and a sadist or sado-masochist? Is she just a damaged soul looking salvation? Or is she knowingly greedy and selfish? Is she a demon looking for hell? Or is she just needy and lonely?
Jim Broadbent incorporated images from Goya’s witches, Daumier’s pictures of travelling players, and Rembrandt’s country landscapes. Dix is a cartoonist, best known for his cartoons in the Guardian.
Carol Katz is an author and illustrator of children's books including Zaidie and Ferdele: Memories of my Childhood (Deux Voiliers Publishing). She has also written and illustrated a graphic novel, Mad or Bad: The Story of My Grandmother. Her short stories, poems, and articles have been published in various anthologies. She is a professional archivist.
‘Dull Margaret’ review: jerky people in a jerk world make for powerful, telling art
Chris CoplanJuly 16, 2018Comic BooksReviews
She is trying to break your heart (and maybe steal some body parts).
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In 2016, writer Donald Hall penned a heart-wrenching essay about life at 87. One line in particular proved extra effective in dropkicking your mortal soul: “Now and then, especially at night, solitude loses its soft power and loneliness takes over. I am grateful when solitude returns.” In one line, Hall strikes at the notion that solitude has a certain dignity attached, and loneliness is what takes over when we somehow lose that sense of control and assuredness.
Hall passed away recently, and I got to revisit that essay as I tackled Dull Margaret, the debut graphic novel from actor Jim Broadbent (AKA, Horace Slughorn from Harry Potter and Archmaester Ebrose from Game of Thrones). The book exists very much in the vein of Hall’s notions of solitude and loneliness, tracing what happens when a person crosses over from being alone to struggling endlessly with feelings of isolation. Whereas Hall has a certain grace regarding his solitude (which isn’t to say he didn’t suffer), Broadbent weaves a tale of a character who uses loneliness as a weapon in a bizarre, undeniably dark tale of revenge.
Despite any connections (perceived or otherwise), it’s not Hall from which Broadbent draws inspiration. Rather, the whole story of Margaret begins with “Dull Gret,” a 16th century painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. For his own artwork, Dix (who draws the Guardian‘s “Roll Up! Roll Up!” strip) expertly strikes at the painting’s terrifying balancing between the otherworldly and the uncannily realistic. It’s a dichotomy that plays out in the bleak English shoreline, the character’s mutant rat faces, and even the way the lines of text practically undulate. The titular Margaret is especially haunting – somewhere between a ghoul and a mound of burnt clay.
Yet all of that ugliness and filth is somehow inviting. It can feel rather cartoonish in a way, a product meant to entertain with exaggeration (while also turning you off human interactions for a time). Even as you stare into these un-human faces, still thinking about jagged teeth and the wiggling of slimy eels, it’s hard to still not feel somewhat connected and engaged. The whole experience is like finding a dead bird as a child: you want to look away, but can’t help but poke it with a stick. Dix’s art is a master class in blurring the lines of reality and basic decency, and it’s quite effective at maintaining a steady sense of momentum between gross/scary high-points.
As stomach-churning as the art is (see page 106!), it all feels like the appetizer for the story itself. Given Broadbent’s experience as a character actor, it’s no wonder that he’s done a brilliant job in creating the singularly disturbing Margaret. More than even her melted pumpkin face, it’s her very soul that’s rotten. On the one hand, she’s utterly alone, cast violently aside from her village. Yet while that sets her up to be a sympathetic character, it’s her behavior that sheds much-needed light on her leper status. She mumbles to herself, engages in the blackest of magic, and ultimately tries to use ancient powers not to improve herself, but for her own greedy aims. Even when she makes a “friend,” she treats him like junk and calls him Worm.
Margaret is the story’s antagonist and protagonist wrapped into one un-charming mold. You feel for her plight just as much as you hate her for, say, mutilating dead bodies and abusing a poor mute fella. There’s real heartache attached as you recognize the depths of her pursuits for power and gold and good old fashioned vengeance. You may also find yourself celebrating and then shaking your head in disappointment (at both yourself and in general) at the somewhat nebulous ending. But that’s what makes Margaret so compelling — she’s a powerful encapsulation of humanity. Victim and villain, the tragic results of someone’s own foolish choices and meddling. We all get in our own way, and with this tome, Broadbent shows the tragic outcomes of a species who blindly and happily steps on its own toes.
In a way, Margaret’s reflective of the painting that inspired her. The “Dull Gret” portrays Dulle Griet pillaging Hell itself with an army of heroic women. Sure, it’s Hell they’re ransacking, but the piece creates this certain disconnect. There’s a beauty and order to the landscape (even with spider-pig-man hybrids and man-eating fish), and even as these brave woman come marching in, you can’t help but feel something’s off.
These women may, in fact, be the invaders — who are they to impose order on a world which seems to be functioning just fine? It’s quite the same for the land of Dull Margaret: decency and order and power are all fluid ideas. Not only is it up to the consumer to understand and impose structure, but no idea or end result is wrong given your perspective. The world and people are just as broken, and how you put the pieces back together (through art and culture) speaks depths while offering minimal comfort.
I got to thinking about just what sort of lessons this graphic novel might provide. One might glean insights about greed, friendship, and even a lil’ Confucian wisdom. But I turn again to another piece of Hall’s writing (this from The Old Life): “We learned how to love each other/by loving together/good things wholly outside each other.” Press for Dull Margaret describes it as a “damaged soul navigating an unsparing world,” and those two quotes together highlight an essential element. The path to finding happiness or completion is through people, but in a way that finds all of us loving and striving toward life’s bigger pillars. Like decency and love and compassion and basic understanding.
The only way to get through the world in something resembling one piece is to hold onto things outside our tiny grasp. Watching Margaret struggle to do so, failing to connect with humanity by removing herself from that very humanity, is both a deeply entertaining tale and a lesson worth clinging to dearly.
Review: Jim Broadbent’s ‘Dull Margaret’ is dark humanity distilled to its essence
08/14/2018 5:00 pm by John Seven 1 Comment
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Less a linear story than an intense incantation filtered through a fever dream, Dull Margaret is the work of British actor Jim Broadbent, his debut graphic novel in collaboration with artist Dix, who is best known for his cartoons in the British newspaper The Guardian.
In the press materials, Broadbent talks about his influence for the book. Part of it was born from encounters with the coastal marshes of Lincolnshire, which is known for its long coast and salt marshes, with salt production dating back to prehistory. It’s this prehistory that Dull Margaret partly comes from, but as Broadbent points out, she also steps out some of his favorite paintings, most directly a 16th-century painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
Broadbent names other artists whose have guided his vision of the graphic novel — Goya and Rembrandt for instance — but the one at the center, Bruegel’s ‘Dulle Griet’ (Mad Meg) is an unmistakable relative. In style it could be compare to works by Hieronymus Bosch with its sweeping, cluttered grotesqueries, but at center is the figure of Mad Meg, an apparent type in Flemish stories at the time that Broadbent is borrowing for his own work.
Mad Meg was characterized as an aggressive woman, and perhaps Dull Margaret has a bit of that in her, but it’s tempered by sadness, confusion, and desperation. We first meet her as she ascends from the water, fully formed and into an existence that though she appears to us new to it, she is definitely already a part of. Margaret speaks in repetitive nature to the point where her words can feel like chants — “Come back here you devil, come on come on! Come back you evil eel, you eel, you eel, you eel!” — interjected with more coherent sentences that gives the impression that she is talking to someone she can perceive but we cannot.
Margaret is a decrepit human figure with a misshapen head that only appears partially-formed, though few of the humans featured in the book look as if they are doing very well. It’s a bleak world these creatures live in, but Margaret goes about her business in a fable-like progression that sees an injustice done to her and her quest for vengeance.
But it’s also a quest for happiness, which Margaret spells out at one point, directing the powers beyond her to grant her gold or a friend, and putting her own constrictive terms onto the deal as she takes part of a hanged man for a witch-like ceremony that leads her to her request, but also on her cryptic odyssey where she encounters three mysterious beings on a ship who help deliver the subject of her vengeance.
Broadbent’s story is elusive. You know what is going on, but the presentation of it is alien and frightening, and that’s entirely due to the masterful artwork by Dix. Though it might be a temptation for some to evoke the artistic influences for the story in a direct way, Dix renders this a story guided by its own visual tone, its own illustrative world.
Dix’s imagery is dark enough to match the emotions guiding the narrative — and I don’t mean dark tones, I mean dark panels, some of them so dark you have to squint as you would as if in an actual room in order to make out the features. Other times its just a pall of gray, like a weight on the creatures that inhabit this earth, or depressing browns to depict the mud and shit and souls there.
It’s perhaps best to approach Dull Margaret not as a straightforward narrative graphic novel, but as a sequential painting or visual poem. There is sense to be made of it, but that’s not its best quality. Colors, figures, chants, and screeds all come together to create something more than its parts, a work that suggests that we all might be a little like Margaret, trudging though a harsh reality, wishing most of all for love and safety.