Carole's Neil Pearson Fan Pages, brought to you by Gushoneybungirl

Many thanks to Carole Goble for the content of these pages. Carole no longer has time to maintain the content and has kindly given me permission to host them on her behalf so that the information will be permanently available for Neil's fans and her hard work will be preserved.  Thanks, Carole!

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Neil's Recent Projects

Last updated 9thNovember 1998

Home Page |  Background | Agent | Career Biography | Misc | Recent Projects | Pictures

Neil Media Watch...last updated 19th May 1999

Maintained by Carole Goble. Corrections or information to carole@cs.man.ac.uk.

Drop The Dead DonkeySeason 6

28th October 1998 to 9th December 1998
The final series ever. Started with a 'cod' docu-soap about GLN without a studio audience. I must have been the only person to have liked it.

Theatre Closer

31st March to 11th July 1998, Lyric Theatre, London
West End play of the season. The run was only supposed to be for 12 weeks, but it proved to be the hit of the season so it was extended until 31st October with a new cast. Neil and his ex-lover Francis Barber were in the first cats. The cast changed on the 13th July. Very rude, quite shocking. And the best internet sex scene on the West End stage.

BBC1 Heaven on Earth

A two part 3 hour drama Sunday 22nd Feb and 2nd March 1998
Neil plays cult leader Richard Bennett- a role taking him from mundane, middle-class graphic designer to power-crazed patriarch of the Community of the Faithful in remotest Wales. Neil plays a complete looney-tunes bible-basher and the part certainly was the most meaty and emotionally challenging one he has had for ages. It was a bit weird seeing him play an unsympathetic character turning nasty.

See You Friday Season 1

May 1997 to June 1997
Neil Pearson stars in a romantic comedy drama for Yorkshire Television. The six-part sitcom follows the ups and downs of a long distance romance. On the last night of their holidays in Crete, Greg (Neil) and Lucy (Joanna Roth) meet and fall in love...but Greg lives in Newcastle and Lucy lives London. Can they carry on their affair over 250 miles? "See You Friday" explores the passions and intensity of seeing someone only at weekends and contrasts this with the difficulty of sustaining a long-distance relationship.

Fever Pitch

Release date: 4th April 1997; London Premiere 26th March 1997
This Channel 4/Wildgaze/Scala feature film is an adaptation of Nick Hornby's "Fever Pitch"--it was filmed over 6 weeks in Maidenhead and London. This version is a romantic comedy that is only loosely based on the book. Colin Firth stars as the Hornby character Paul Ashworth, a football-loving teacher. Neil plays his father in the childhood flashbacks set in the late 1960s.

Drop The Dead Donkey Season 5

1st October 1996 to 17th December 1996
The last episode, "Sex'n'Death" was top-class, had loads of Dave (i.e. Neil) in it and if you like to see Neil in leather and not much of it this is the episode for you. This series wasn't as topical as past ones (it was filmed one week before broadcasting) but the strength of this sitcom has always been its characters, not its topicality. Think of your favourites...the Christmas Party, Paintball... what was good about them; was it their hard-hitting topicality? No! So after a cautious start I think this series was as good as ever and had some real gems that will become classics.

Rhodes;

15th September 1996 to 3rd November 1996
The 8 part epic BBC serial "Rhodes" about Cecil Rhodes. Filmed in South Africa in the latter half of 1995, it stars Martin Shaw as Rhodes and Neil as Dr Leander Starr Jameson, Rhodes' henchman, with Joe Shaw playing Rhodes as a young man and Francis Barber (Neil's real life ex-lover) as the Rhodes romantic interest. Its the most expensive BBC drama ever (10 Million GBP) so we expected lots of sniping about whether it was worth it or not. General view is that it was not...not nearly enough Neil in it, sod all character development and by the time it got going (around episode 4) most people had lost interest or the will to live or both. None of the characters were sympathetic, most were pretty sketchily drawn and making a 8 part historic epic without any racy sexy bits was doomed. I don't think we can blame the actors; fault falls firmly into the writer and director's lap.

Screen Two Crossing The Floor

5th October 1996, BBC2 (9.30pm)
Filmed this July. Neil stars in this Guy Jenkin's production (one half of the DTDD team), a companion piece to his earlier "A Very Open Prison". It stars Tom Wilkinson as a completely fictional Home Secretary who is chronically incompetent and has no moral precepts to speak of. Seeing which way the wind is blowing, he tries to save his political skin by crossing the floor of the House and joining the Labour Party, led by Neil. Things do not go smoothly...broadcast right after the Labour Party Conference... General view? Absolutely brilliant. Funniest thing this year. Neil's portrayal of a disturbingly demented 'Blair-like' leader nearly steals the show. Only the Daily Mail didn't like it thinking it too pro-Labour, so it must have been good...