Edward Woodward
Posted 16 November 09 by Scott Andrews
There are very few actors of whom I would consider myself a fan. Series, yes; writers, definitely; the occasional director, sure; but actors, not so much.
While I would feel compelled to watch everything written by Joss Whedon, I have no similar compulsion to watch everything starring Sarah Michelle Gellar.
But Edward Woodward, who died today, was different. He’s the only actor, honestly, the only one, I would consider myself to be a fan of. He was never a big screen leading man – although The Wicker Man is remarkable and Breaker Morant at the very least memorable – but on the small screen he was magnetic.
I first saw him as The Equalizer, a show that while occasionally good was really only made remarkable by Woodward’s central performance, which combined utter ruthlessness with a fundamental moral decency that so many fictional hard men utterly lack. That mixture of world weary decency and hard as nails pragmatism was fascinating and really, it all came from Woodward. That show could have been a bad Death Wish clone, but the unexpected gentleness at the heart of Woodward’s ruthless avenger elevated it far beyond its original intent. By the time they filmed episodes such as Memories of Manon, the writers had started to write the kind of material that Woodward merited.
But it’s farther back in his catalogue, in a series I only came to recently, that he demonstrated the full range of his talents – except singing! – and that was Callan.
Benefitting from the sure hand of a creator/writer who had a distinct voice and vision – James Mitchell – Callan was bleak, uncompromising, honest and full of barely controlled fury yet, because shot on video and mostly in the studio, an uncomfortable intimacy. A lot of telly from that period has not aged well, betrayed by the staginess of the sets, the ponderousness of the writing and the local rep performances – but Callan, as I found to my astonishment when I sat down to watch the DVD releases a few years back, is as fresh as the day it was made. It’s confident, shocking, heartbreaking and, crucially, believable. It’s one of the great TV series, which changed the landscape of TV and rewrote the rulebook for everything that followed. And it’s impossible to imagine anyone but Woodward in the role.
I spent ages tracking down Woodward’s forgotten series 1990 made between Callan and the Equalizer, but finally found it a couple of years ago – it’s long overdue on DVD. Although it has many flaws, Woodward still carries it all effortlessly, with class, confidence and charisma to spare.
And that was the measure of the man. Whatever work he did he brought a quiet authority to it that was magnetic and impossible to ignore. So willing was I to watch anything he did, that I even watched six episodes of Eastenders last year. Edward Woodward is probably the only actor in the world whose presence could have made me tune into a prime time soap, but I did, and he didn’t disappoint.
He may never have won an Oscar or been feted as much as he truly deserved, but Edward Woodward was one of a kind, probably the only television actor I would describe as a giant. I’ll miss him.
Tonight I think I’ll watch a bit of Callan and raise a toast. I suggest you do the same; you won’t regret it.
