EVENT UPDATE : THE PRIDE OF BRITAIN AWARDS.. THE GROSVENOR HOUSE HOTEL .. LONDON.. OCTOBER 30TH 2021 ..

Joan with Mark Omrod and Sports star Sarah Storey

 

Joan attended The Pride Of Britain Awards at London's Grosvenor House Hotel last night where she presented an award to Former Marine Mark Omrod, the triple amputee who lost his right arm and both legs when he stepped on an explosive device while in Afghanistan in 2007. He recently completed a 99.9 mile overnight cycle from Iilfracombe to Plymouth using a specially adapted hand cycle.. 

You can watch the awards presentation on ITV on Thursday November 4th at 8pm..

CELEBRATING 70 YEARS! : AMERICAN HORROR STORY - APOCALYPSE .. F/X NETWORK .. USA .. 2018 ..

 FX NETWORK

RYAN MURPHY PRODUCTIONS

Presents

AHS  APOCALYPSE

Starring

SARAH PAULSON as Ms Wilhemina Venable / Cordelia Goode

EVAN PETERS as Mr Gallant / Tate Langdon / Jeff Pfister

ADINA PORTER as Dinah Stevens

BILLIE LOURD as Mallory

LESLIE GROSSMAN as Coco St.Piere Vanderbilt

CODY FERN as Michael Langdon

EMMA ROBERTS as Madison Montgomery

CHEYENNE JACKSON as John Henry Moore

KATHY BATES as Mrs Miriam Mead

FRANCES CONROY as Myrtle Snow

JESSICA LANGE as Constance Langdon

BILLY EICHNER as Brock

LILY RABE as Misty Day

GABOUREY SIDIBE as Queenie

BILLY PORTER as Behold Chablis

TAISSA FARMIGA as Zoe Benson

MENA SUVARI as Elizabeth Short

KYLE ALLEN as Timothy Campbell

ASH SANTOS as Emily

ERIKA ERVIN as The First

JEFFREY BOWYER CHAPMAN as Andre Stevens

DINA MEYER as Nora Campbell

TRAVIS SCHULDT as Mr Campbell

& JOAN COLLINS as Evie Gallant / Bubbles McGee

Created & Written by Ryan Murphy & Brad Falchuk

Series 8 - Eps 1 - 'The End'  Directed by Bradley Buecker

Series 8 - Eps 2 - 'The Morning After'  Directed by Jennifer Lynch

Series 8- Eps 7 - 'Traitor'  Directed by Jennifer Lynch

Series 8- Eps 9 - 'Fire & Reign'  Directed by Jennifer Arnold 

As the end of the world approaches, a group of well heeled citizens including glamorous and ultra rich Evie Gallant band together to enter an underground bunker, but little do they know the fate that awaits them.. While cult actress Bubbles McGee must call upon her alter ego to help a coven of witches defeat the evil one who is trying to bring about the end of the world, the Apocalypse!!

Brian Falchuk who helped create the show with Ryan Murphy commented on casting Joan..

'' We have all been obsessed with her forever! Joan is classic Hollywood. A Legend. ''

Falchuk's wife Gwyneth Paltrow commented..

'' Joan Collins became a star when a female was allowed to embody only one archetype, the vixen, but she is so much more than that. She is also one of the wittiest, most brilliant women I have ever come across.''

Joan commented on the show...

'' When I first saw it, I went to my agent and said, “I love this show. Can you get me a role in it?” Nothing. Then I met Ryan Murphy at the Vanity Fair Oscar party, and we had a lovely conversation, but I really didn’t think much more of it. Two weeks later we go to see Barbra Streisand at the PaleyFest, and I didn’t know Ryan was going to be interviewing her. We go backstage afterward to see Barbra, and Ryan says, “I just made an offer on you!” That was how I got Dynasty, too: meeting Aaron Spelling at a party. A lot of things happen when you go to those parties!''

Joan on set with BD Wong

She says Murphy, a big admirer, first approached her about appearing in the eighth installment of his FX anthology series last February at a Vanity Fair party. “He said he wanted to write a role specifically for me and wanted to make it very interesting and good and something I could sink my teeth into,” she says. “He didn’t specifically say what it was; that’s the way Ryan works. He doesn’t tell his actors what they’re going to be playing.

“I only knew that I was going to be working with Evan Peters, who is such a wonderful young actor and a pleasure to work with. And I loved working with Kathy Bates [who plays Ms. Miriam Mead]. What an honor.”

Joan with Evan Peters

Collins isn’t as gushing about the scene (in Episode 2) where Evie was eviscerated by her grandson, who assumed grandma was someone else with whom he’d had an earlier tryst.

“I’m a bit of a squeamish person, so I don’t really watch horror films or bloodthirsty films very much,” Collins says. “I was lying there for hours and hours under a sort of coffin with a board on top of me and a dummy in which all the blood was [shown]. I’ll never eat sausages again. I had to put my mind in a different place so I didn’t concentrate on it too much.

“I have to admit I had a couple of nightmares after that.”

    Joan in Evie's death scene

You can buy season 8 of American Horror Story Apocalypse on Blu-ray at the following link!

BUY AHS APOCALYPSE ON BLU-RAY HERE!

RADIO UPDATE : LBC RADIO / ANDREW PIERCE... LONDON STUDIOS.. FRIDAY OCTOBER 29TH 2021 ..

 Joan dropped into to the LBC studios in London last evening to chat to Andrew Pierce about her Sunday Times best seller 'My Unapologetic Diaries'.. You can see the interview here!

ANDREW PIERCE TALKS TO JOAN HERE!

CELEBRATING 70 YEARS! : GERRY .. BURTON FOX FILMS .. UK .. 2018 ..

 BURTON FOX FILMS

Presents

GERRY

Starring

JOAN COLLINS as Hilda

STEPHEN GREIF as Royston

OLIVER FORD DAVIES as Frank

LYNNE VERRALL as Gerry

SHENINE RAJAKARUNANAYAKE as Waitress

Produced by Hester Rouff

Director of Photography  Jaime Ackroyd

Music by Andrew Allen King

Written by Paul Agar  Victoria Hollup

Directed by Paul Agar  Victoria Hollup

(c) 2018 .. 16mins .. UK .. B/W

Facing twilight years of loneliness and isolation, Hilda, whilst clearing out her deceased husband's belongings, unearths a long-buried secret. The find forces her to confront her past and break free from her solitude with an attempt to live the life that she always denied herself....

This award winning short is a big departure as regards image for Joan as she plays a lonely widow who discovers a secret whilst sorting out her late husbands things.. Joan got great recognition for her role as Hilda and she won Best Actress at the LA Shorts Film Festival, while 'Gerry' won Best Film at The Manchester Film Festival. 

Joan with Oliver Ford Davies

'Gerry' is not available on dvd but you can rent or buy from Amazon Prime presented by Shortz at the following links!

BUY OR RENT GERRY FROM AMAZON PRIME UK

BUY OR RENT GERRY FROM AMAZON PRIME USA HERE

CELEBRATING 70 YEARS! : THE ROYALS .. NBC UNIVERSAL / LIONSGATE .. USA/UK .. 2015 -2018

NBC UNIVERSAL

& 

LIONSGATE TELEVISON 

For E! Channel

Presents

THE ROYALS

Starring

ELIZABETH HURLEY as Queen Helena Henstridge

VINCENT REGAN as King Simon Henstridge

WILLIAM MOSELEY as Prince Liam Henstridge

ALEXANDRA PARK as Princess Eleanor Henstridge

JAKE MASKALL as Prince Cyrus Henstridge

TOM AUSTEN as Sir Jasper Frost

OLIVER MILBURN as Ted Pryce

MERRITT PATTERSON as Ophelia Pryce

GENEVIEVE GAUNT as Wilhelmena Moreno

MAX BROWN as King Robert Henstridge

& JOAN COLLINS as Grand Duchess Alexandra of Oxford

Produced by Brian Robbins  Joe Davola  Annabelle Frost  Sam Breckman  Nick O'Hagen

Created by Mark Schwahn

Based on 'Falling for Hamlet' by Michelle Ray

Series 1 - Eps 7  'Your Sovereignty of Reason'  Directed by Tom Vaughan

Series 2 - Eps 1  'It Is Not, Nor it Cannot Come to Good'  Directed by Mark Schwahn

Series 2 - Eps 5  'The Spirit That I have Seen'   Directed by Tom Vaughan

Series 2 - Eps 7  'Taint Not Thy Mind, Nor Let Thy Soul Contrive Against Thy Mother'  

                             Directed by James Lafferty

Series 2- Eps 8 'Be All My Sins Remembered'  Directed by Mark Schwahn

Series 4 - Eps 4 'Black as His Purpose Did The Night Resemble'  Directed by Mark Schwahn

Series 4 - Eps 6 'My News Shall Be The Fruit to That Great Feast'  Directed by Erica Dunton

 Drama about a fictional British Royal family set in modern-day London, who inhabit a world of opulence and regal tradition that caters to any and every desire, but one that also comes with a price tag of duty, destiny, and intense public scrutiny.

The Royals was a highly sensational drama series created for the E! entertainment channel as their first scripted drama series. It ran for four seasons from 2015 to 2018 with 40 episodes and gathered quite a following during its run.. 

The shows creator Mark Schwahn...

'' As the show was centred around a Royal family, the locations had to be sumptous.''

Elizabeth Hurley was delighted Joan was on board..

'' I was thrilled when they cast Joan as over the years we had two near misses of Joan and I appearing as mother and daughter, but it never panned out. We would meet at parties and we would say - 'We are going to make it happen' Joan would say. 'Well you better make it soon before you are too old to play my daughter!'

'We adore Joan being on set. We love it! We are all excited.. She is fabulous!''

Joan on set with Jake Maskall ( Prince Cyrus)

Joan commented on her character of Grand Duchess..

'' The character I play is actually the one in control. She knows everything that is happening, all the madness and naughtiness and decadence that is going on with the Royal family, the fictional Royal family. So she decides to step in and stop it all! It's very dramatic, very funny and beautifully written and the sets are to die for! ''

Joan with Elizabeth & Alexandra Park

The full series is not available widely as a box set as yet but you can order individual seasons on dvd.. 

ORDER SEASON 2 OF THE ROYALS ON DVD HERE!

ORDER SEASON 4 OF THE ROYALS HERE!

RADIO UPDATE : TIMES RADIO... THURSDAY OCTOBER 28TH 2021 ...

 Joan chatted to Mariella Frostrup earlier on Times Radio about her Sundat Times bestseller 'My Unapologetic Diaries'.. Yon can listen to the interview at the following link ( 1hr 06mins in! ) ..

LISTEN TO JOAN CHAT TO MARIELLA HERE!

MEDIA UPDATE : THE GRAHAM NORTON RADIO SHOW.. VIRGIN RADIO UK.. SUNDAY OCTOBER 24TH 2021 ..

 Joan dropped into Virgin Radio earlier to chat to Graham Norton about her Sunday Times Best Seller 'My Unapologetic Diaries'.You can listen to the show here! 2.36m in!

LISTEN TO JOAN ON THE GRAHAM NORTON RADIO SHOW ON VIRGIN RADIO...

CELEBRATING 70 YEARS! : QUEENS OF DRAMA .. POP TV / THINK FACTORY MEDIA .. USA .. 2015 ..

 POP TV

THINK FACTORY MEDIA

Present 

QUEENS OF DRAMA

Starring

DONNA MILLS

CRYSTAL HUNT

VANESSA MARCIL

CHRYSTTE PHARRIS

LINDSAY HARTLEY

HUNTER TYLO

JASON SHANE SCOTT

MARK ZUNINO

LORENZO LAMAS

SAM SARPONG

Special Guest Star   JOAN COLLINS

A group of seasoned daytime drama actresses get together with legendary night time drama star Donna Mills ( Knots Landing ) to develop, pitch and produce a new drama series pilot that will be picked up by a network...

Queens of Drama, starring a sextet of current and former suds sirens—Donna Mills (Knots Landing), Vanessa Marcil (General Hospital), Lindsay Hartley (All My Children), Chrystee Pharris (Passions), Crystal Hunt (One Life to Live), and Hunter Tylo (The Bold and the Beautiful). Their goal is to write themselves a drama series and pitch it to the networks. But first they have to lay down their pitchforks. Mills gave us a preview.

Things quickly get cutthroat in this series. Is the conflict among the actresses real? Semireal? Fiction with a whiff of reality?
It’s a hybrid, and I was very careful with the producers, because there were times when they pushed me to be a major bitch. I said, “No, I won’t do that.” I can be headstrong, take-charge, a little pushy, but I don’t think I’m bitchy and I didn’t want that to come across.

Any qualms about jumping into this?
Oh, yes! When they first called me, they said, “We have this reality show…,” and immediately I was resistant. “I am not doing a reality show!” But then they said, “Listen to what it’s about—women who get together and want to create their own nighttime drama.” And I thought that was kind of nice. It’s about something. It has a purpose, a goal. So I took a leap of faith. I wasn’t sure I was going to like it but, as it turned out, I had a really great time.

Is it really any different from acting?
On one of the early days of the show, all six of us were together for a scene and the cameras were rolling but nothing was happening. We were all just sort of staring at each other! Finally, I turned to one of the producers and said, “Somebody has to call ‘Action!’ because, if you don’t, nobody will do anything. We’re actresses!” I can’t speak for the others, but what you see of me in Queens of Drama is pretty much me. I don’t do anything in this series I probably wouldn’t do in real life. I’m not saying I thought up everything. They definitely came up with ideas and ran them by me. I don’t think the audience believes those housewives shows are really, really real.

We also know that certain reality stars like to stir up trouble in order to get famous. Does that apply to any of these divas? [Laughs] I don’t think any of us is planning on this show for our fame…or to get rich. It’s entertainment. At least, I hope it’s entertaining.

Lisette Azar/CBS

At one point, Joan Collins drops in and it’s like Alexis Carrington and Abby Ewing are sitting down to lunch. Was it your intention to give us an ’80s fangasm?
They weren’t even sure they could get Joan, but it ended up being a blast. That era still means so much to people. People couldn’t wait for Thursday night and the next episode of Knots Landing. Your friends came over. It was an event! Now you can hole up in your closet by yourself over a weekend and watch three seasons of House of Cards. It’s not as exciting. But, boy, that era was fun. In fact, I’m writing a book! The proposal just went out to the New York publishers. I’m doing it with James Spada [author of bestselling biographies of Barbra Streisand, Grace Kelly and Bette Davis]. I was approached to do a book back in the Knots years but I said, “I have nothing to tell, or say. No one wants to hear what I think about anything.” But six or seven months ago I was approached again, and now I feel ready.

Joan on set with Donna & stylist Rene Horsch

VARIETY Review...

By Brian Lowry

The gradual disappearance of soap operas has significantly reduced opportunities for actors in that genre. So what better way to exploit the situation than “Queens of Drama,” a Pop series that assembles a group of actresses for the ostensible purpose of trying to produce their own show, but really functions as an excuse to create a reality-style serial on the cheap. There’s no harm done, unless A) you once wrote soaps, and are thus rendered obsolete; or B) you have a functioning cerebral cortex, which will struggle to buy this as anything other than unconvincingly manufactured melodrama.

Granted, there’s something so deliciously meta about the concept — following the soapy sextet as they try to craft and sell a show, when in fact what you’re watching is the show — that some fans will accept the series strictly on its own bogus terms. Moreover, Pop is cleverly launching the half-hour format with back-to-back episodes behind its telecast of the Daytime Emmy Awards, which certainly provides the most hospitable platform imaginable to get the goods sampled.

Familiarity with the actresses and their daytime-drama roles isn’t even a requirement, since the project pretty quickly shoehorns them into types, deriving most of the tension from the catty relationship between Lindsay Hartley and Crystal Hunt. The latter even has the audacity to crack wise about her co-star’s age now that she’s auditioning for mom roles. Meow.

Leading the pack, sort of, is Vanessa Marcil, who enlists Donna Mills (sorry, “guest star” Donna Mills) to help advance the project. But Mills brings in Hunter Tylo without asking, which irks the others, and then takes a network meeting (at the CW, synergistically, given CBS’ ownership role with both that network and Pop) without informing her new partners.

The gang is so irritated by this, or at least professes to be, they seek to enlist another diva as a possible replacement for Mills. And when Joan Collins comes sauntering in, the music swells as if it’s 1985 all over again.

Chrystee Pharris rounds out the cast, largely presented as the voice of reason and sort-of referee between Hunt and Hartley. And “cast” is the operative word, since everyone is playing some variation of themselves, just with less sex than they used to have in soaps.
Of course, there are two ways of looking at this. Charitably, it’s possible to admire the ingenuity at work in finding an avenue to employ these actresses, albeit in a slightly different capacity; by contrast, it’s just as easy to lament that they only get to ply their trade in this context by pretending that they’re not really acting, in an “If life gives you lemons” kind of way.

Then again, the divas brought together here join a pretty sizable list of performers who have done just that by going the reality-TV route. And as Kim Basinger’s Veronica Lake look-alike put it in “L.A. Confidential,” “We still get to act a little.”

At present the series is not on dvd.. Hopefully maybe in the future..

CELEBRATING 70 YEARS! : BENIDORM .. ITV1 .. 2014 TO 2017 .. UK ..

 ITV Presents

From Tiger Aspect Productions

BENIDORM

Starring

SHERRIE HEWSON as Joyce Temple Savage

JAKE CANUSO as Mateo Castellano

SIOBHAN FINNERAN as Janice

JANINE DUVITSKI as Jacqueline Stewart

TONY MAUDSLEY as Kenneth Du Beke

TIM HEALY as Les

ADAM GILLEN as Liam Conroy

KENNY IRELAND as Donald Stewart

STEVE PEMBERTON as Mick Garvey

SHEILA REID as Madge Garvey

HANNAH WADDINGHAM as Tonya

RUSTIE LEE as Queenie

THE KRANKIES as Pepe & Agnes

MATTHEW KELLY as Cyril Babcock

JOHNNY VEGAS as Geoff Maltby

ELSIE KELLY as Doreen Maltby

CHRISSY ROCK as Janey York

DANNY WALTERS as Tiger Dyke

DERREN LITTLE as Elvis

BOBBY CRUSH as Billy Sparkle

BOBBY KNUTT as Eddie Dawson

JULIE GRAHAM as Sheron Dawson

STEVE EDGE as Billy Dawson

JOHN CHALLIS as Monty Staines

PAUL BAZELY as Troy Ganatra

KEVIN BISHOP as The Original Peter Andre

JOSH BOLT as Rob Dawson

JASON MANFORD as Andre

MADNESS as Themselves

& JOAN COLLINS as Crystal Hennessy Vass

Series 6 - Episode 7 ... 2014  -Directed by Sandy Johnson

Series 7 - Episode 5 ... 2015 - Directed by Sandy Johnson

Series 8 - Episode 7 ... 2016 - Directed by David Sant

Series 9 - Episode 9 ... 2017 - Directed by David Sant 

Joyce Temple Savage is doing her best to run the Solana and make it a quality hotel, but when the hotel chain ceo Crystal Hennessy Vass turns up unannounced to check the resort, Joyce has more than enough on her plate! Crystal's visit become frequent every season and when corners need to be cut, it's Joyce who is due for the chop!

Joan enjoyed her guest appearances on 'Benidorm', although she had never watched it at first, it was only when sister Jackie mentioned the show as she had enjoyed it, that Joan took notice of the sitcom. 

Joan had known Sherrie Hewson for sometime and Joan has appeared on Loose Women many times, Sherrie recalled..

 “Whenever I’ve met Joan, she’d say, ‘Oh my God, I’m desperate to be in Benidorm!’ So I said I’d mention it…”

 “I didn’t know she was going to play my boss, which worked out beautifully. She’s the CEO of the company. She lays down the law and poor Joyce gets it in the neck. I get heavily put down.”

 “She’d love to come back. She had a wonderful time out here and loves the show.” Although things are truly terrible for Joyce this, Sherrie was glad to see Crystal turn up in the comedy again as it meant some memorable on-screen moments with Joan again.

“My scenes with Joan Collins are fabulous – she’s so good at the put-down! The only thing is, Joan looks so amazing so it made me feel dreadful. You never see Joan without make up. One day I asked her: ‘Do you ever wear a tracksuit?’ and she just said: ‘A what?”

“The most fabulous person of all is her husband, Percy. Everybody needs a Percy. He’s amazing and does everything for Joan, gets her coffee, gets the food, and brushes her hair.

Jake Canuso (who plays randy barman Mateo) reveals that Joan Collins’s arrival meant that “the street had to be closed off. We had ten policeman, security guards.” Of all the Benidorm regulars, she only features in scenes with him, Sherrie and Tim Healy, “so we felt very honoured.” Jake loved working with her. “I get to insult her. Best moment of my life! To get to bitch to Joan Collins!” How did she take it? “She loved it. She was great. She’s such a good sport.” He was a bit wary at first, however. “It’s Joan Collins! At my age you’ve been brought up with her in Dynasty and you think she’s going to be a bitch, but she’s a good sport, very professional, very funny, witty, on it, old school. She tweeted about it and was very excited to be here.'' He says: “She’s a huge fan of the show. Jackie [Collins, her sister] got her into it – two or three years ago she got the DVDs over Christmas and they watched them all.”

Tim Healy (who plays transvestite barman Lesley) says: “I had a great scene with her, yeah. The first person she sees when she comes in the hotel is me, or the back of my head and of course I turn round and I start talking to her about putting me bras on a boil-wash… She was great fun and remarkable for her age.”

You can buy the complete series of ten seasons on this recent box set which also features many extras and 4 postcards.. You can order at the following link ..

ORDER BENIDORM COMPLETE SERIES BOX SET HERE!

WELCOME TO BENIDORM!

This all-inclusive package features 10 glorious seasons at The Solana Hotel bringing you a laugh-out-loud mix of hilarious holiday makers and hapless holiday staff.

Benidorm is Britain’s favourite holiday resort and it’s certainly been a British comedy phenomenon for over a decade, winning countless awards and attracting guest stars such as Joan Collins, Cilla Black, Sheridan Smith, Shane Richie, Uri Gellar and The Chuckle Brothers! Not forgetting musical legends Bananarama, Madness and Holly Johnson. Enjoy this classic series again and again with exclusive content including outtakes, Benidorm: 10 Years on Holiday documentary special, and Benidorm’s infamous 2017 Royal Variety Performance.

RELEASED IN SPECIAL SUITCASE PACKAGING WITH 4 POST CARDS

EXTRAS
• Series 1: Cast Interviews, Photo Album
• Series 2: Outtakes, Behind the Scenes, Audio Commentaries, Photo Album
• 2009 Special: Behind the Scenes, Photo Album
• Series 3: Outtakes, Behind the Scenes, Audio Commentaries, Photo Album, Deleted Scenes
• 2010 Xmas Special: Making Of including Deleted Scenes, Photo Gallery
• Series 4: Behind the Scenes, Outtakes, Audio Commentaries
• Series 5: Behind the Scenes, Outtakes, Audio Commentaries
• Series 6: Outtakes
• Series 7: Outtakes
• Series 10: Benidorm: 10 Years on Holiday, Royal Variety Performance Sketch, Deleted Scenes, Photo Gallery

CELEBRATING 70 YEARS! : THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES .. VERTIGO FILMS .. UK .. 2017 ..

 

VERTIGO FILMS

BRIGHT PICTURES

Presents

THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES

Starring

JOAN COLLINS as Helen Shelly

PAULINE COLLINS as Priscilla

FRANCO NERO as Alberto

RONALD PICKUP as Frank

SIAN REEVES as Sarah

JOELY RICHARDSON as Lucy

MICHAEL BRANDON as Harry Scheider

ALLENE QUINCY as Ileana

RICHARD SYMS as Reg

WAYNE CATER as Coach Driver

MATILDA SHAPLAND as Eleanor

MARIE BORG as Sylvie

PASCAL HENAULT as Pianist

Written by Roger Goldby

Music by Stephen Warbeck

Executive Producer - Tim Rice Jonathan Shalit  Joan Collins Percy Gibson etc

Produced by Sarah Sulick & Azim Bolkiah

Directed by Roger Goldby 

(c) 2017 ..  UK .. 104 mins ... Color ..

Helen a fading Hollywood star who has been confined to a care home because of a bad hip vows to escape so she can attend an old boyfriends funeral. On the way she enlists the help of a downtrodden housewife Priscilla, who becomes her road buddy.

This 2017 film was a labour of love for Joan as she had spent a few years trying to get the project together and it was worth the wait. With a cast of interesting, quirky characters, Joan and Pauline Collins make a wonderful team and provide a memorable journey. 

Joan commented...

'' I based the character of Helen loosely on Debbie Reynolds, who was great beauty who had her share of lows in life. Even though my character is a bitter, twisted, rather nasty kind of person on the outside, underneath there is a sweet person to be found. When they were casting Priscilla, one person who absolutely jumped out at me from the pages was Pauline, who I admire tremendously as an actress and we have known each other many years.''

Joan on set with Joely Richardson.

 Roger Golby, director of The Time of Their Lives 

What makes it so special?

First and foremost the main characters, who are the perfect odd couple. These two very different women come together by chance, go on an incredible journey, change each other, and end up as true friends. It's a warm, uplifting tale of two strong, mature female characters that people can identify with - and how they break free. I hope audiences find it funny too of course!

You wrote The Time of Their Lives. What inspired the story?

I've always been drawn to stories about older people. I suppose in a way it was inspired by my grandmothers and great aunt. These were three older women who were really important in my life. They showed me that older people can still to do things, still change, and are perfectly capable of going on an adventure.

Was it a coup to get Joan and Pauline for the film?

Absolutely. A film like this is made or broken by the cast. Joan is a legend, but she also has incredible depth of performance and real charisma. When I first met her and she agreed to do the film, we talked about the role of Priscilla. I had Pauline in mind to play the part, and it was also Joan's first suggestion.
They already knew each other and have a chemistry, a shorthand if you like, that transfers to the screen. They are very different people, but both are incredibly versatile and hard-working. Hilarious too. Franco Nero is a big Italian star and he was a real gentleman. A joy to work with.

Is there a message in this film?

I guess it's something as simple as: it's never too late to change and live bravely, with hope.

And was Ȋle de Ré an ideal location for an escape?

Pauline's character needs to get away, go somewhere different. When you go somewhere different it enables you to change and this contrast helps Priscilla come out of herself. France is a beautiful country throughout, but my producer Sarah Sulick recommended Ȋle de Ré in particular.
It's a little like Nantucket, with a lovely atmosphere to it, beautiful landscapes, old churches and abbeys, and people riding bicycles everywhere. Lovely little harbours too and a connection with movie stars and media people - lots go there for their holidays. I suppose it could've been St Tropez, but Ȋle de Ré was just perfect.

Executive Producer Tim Rice...

'' One of the aspects of this film that particularly appealed to me, as a former student at La Sorbonne in Paris is the use of several wonderful 60's French pop hits by artists such as Johnny Hallyday, Sylvie Vartan, Jacques Dutronce and Francoise Hardy.''

Joan sings 'Who Can I Turn To?

Producer Sarah Sulick...

''The film draws on both the ongoing popularity of buddy movies and the publics growing appetite for poignant comedies led by a more mature cast.''

Joan, Pauline & Franco Nero on set

Review Variety ..

By Guy Lodget

There is nothing like a dame, and Dame Joan Collins is still nothing like one — not by the Queen’s definition of the term, at least. Yet with the British honours system having finally smiled on her, she has belatedly decided to emulate Dame Judi, Dame Maggie and the “Best Exotic” club with a respectably genteel geriatric comedy of her own. Enter “The Time of Their Lives,” a likably lame rattletrap of a road movie that gets what limited spark it has from the “Dynasty” diva’s still-lascivious on-screen charisma. 

As a pair of lonely pensioners thrown together by chance on an episodic Gallic escapade, the strutting star is agreeably paired up with long-neglected namesake Pauline Collins; Roger Goldby’s narratively lumpy film shamelessly cribs from the latter’s Oscar-nominated breakout “Shirley Valentine” in espousing the life-enhancing virtues of a little sun, a little wine and a little swarthy Continental sex, but remains, from the script down, a strictly economy-class affair. Goldby’s film does, however, prove that both Collins's should have been better used over the years, even as it slightly misuses them itself. Joan, in particular, deploys some peppery comic timing and a salty sense of self-parody to season the otherwise vague character of Helen Shelley, a Sixties screen siren whose former days of debauchery have left her penniless, family-free and in a state care home. When she learns that the successful director of her biggest hit has died, she resolves to get to Ile de Ré for the funeral by hook or (mostly) by crook, desperate to regain the industry contacts that could revive her career. “It’ll be like the Academy Awards,” she reasons. “A bit sadder, but not much.”

Playing attentively to type as Priscilla, a downtrodden middle-England housewife, Pauline Collins gets the more cohesive backstory of the two — the already obvious details of which are teased out through needless narrative contrivance. Stranded for decades in a through-the-motions marriage to a loveless old stiff (Ronald Pickup) who continually blames her for the death of their young son, she’s understandably loath to amend the error when an implausible misunderstanding places her on a beach-bound tour bus with Helen and her fellow institutional inmates. That she’s swiftly befriended and wheedled by Helen into joining her on a law-breaking cross-Channel jaunt is a greater stretch still; Goldby’s nominally original screenplay demands great bounding leaps of credulity from its audience, even as its own rate of movement rarely exceeds a lumbago-slowed shuffle.

Once in France, the film finds moderately surer footing, with dewily lit coastal scenery at least providing a salubrious backdrop to the stars’ repetitive squabbling and low-energy banter. (James Aspinall’s artificially sunny lensing is bright enough to render the hyper-perky machinations of Stephen Warbeck’s score overkill — though a cheery, film-within-a-film theme song, written by executive producer Tim Rice, is a cute detail.) As a wealthy, ponytailed Italian artist who rescues the women when their car and screenplay alike run out of gas, Franco Nero shows up mostly to let the hemmed-in Pauline Collins replay her “Shirley Valentine” blossoming, though his most vivid contribution to proceedings is the year’s most unexpected full-frontal shot — you won’t find that in “The Lady in the Van,” folks. With due respect to Nero’s manhood, however, Joan Collins remains the film’s most sizable asset, whether flicking off insults and sucking on cigarettes with imperious, eye-rolling hauteur, or bringing a shoulder-padded soap star’s quivering conviction to some late-in-the-game funereal melodrama. Her dramatic gifts and flair for diva-tude converge most effectively in an out-of-nowhere musical number that sees her touchingly croon a Leslie Bricusse-Anthony Newley standard from her own salad days. “Who can I turn to when nobody needs me?” she sings — though one suspects the dame can sustain herself rather better than this sweet, rickety film.

You can still pick up a copy on blu-ray at the following link...

BUY THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES HERE!