THE
UNMUTUAL WEBSITE
CAST & CREW INTERVIEWS
JAMES BREE - VILLIERS ("DO NOT FORSAKE....")
Adapted from an interview conducted by Dave Jones and transcribed by Dave Healey in 1993, with their kind permission.
JAMES BREE: I've never been part of action things really, except that Peter [Braham - stuntman] and I have known each other I think longer than anybody else. We first met in 1958 (we were children then!). We were in a play, "The Visit". We toured around at the worst time of year. You needed to be a stunt man to survive touring in the middle of winter. We were supposed to be on our way to the West End. We got to Stratford-upon-Avon and there we were abandoned. We were left high and dry and the show went to America!
DAVE JONES: James, you didn't actually work with McGoohan much, did you?.
JB: No, unfortunately I didn't have anything to do with him at all. I felt I was very fortunate to work with Pat Jackson, who was a marvellous director and a very nice man. And there was Nigel Stock and Zena Walker and a lot of old friends were in it as well like Harry Lockwood West and John Wentworth. It was very enjoyable.
DJ: How were you approached for the role Villiers in "Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling"?
JB: Wasn't the casting
done by Rose Tobias-Shaw, presumably it was through her. I didn't feel pressure
in the filming of that episode, but then I simply appeared intermittently and
it wasn't a very big part. It all seemed to go along very well. I knew Nigel
Stock from before. We managed that famous paternoster lift.
It was very agreeable. Pat Jackson was the dominant personality on our episode
and he was a splendid fellow.
DJ: James, were you working on a full script? Was it ready to go or did they keep adding pages?
JB: I think it was complete, as far as the sequences I was concerned with. Whether Nigel had different bits given to him, I don't know.