This week’s TORn TUESDAY webcast will be coming to you live from New Zealand. Our own Cliff “Quickbeam” Broadway is in the country right now, and will be chatting with Kiwi actor and radio show host Bruce Hopkins.
Now, you probably know Bruce for his featured role in Peter Jackson’s, Lord Of The Rings film trilogy in the role of Gamling, commander of the armies of Rohan.
However before starting his acting career 23 years ago and riding off to save Middle-earth, Bruce had been at various times a professional dancer with companies such as Limbs Dance Co and Black Grace, and a commercial crayfisherman with his father Bill Hopkins, harvesting the packhorse crayfish off North Cape and Cape Reinga.
Bruce Hopkins writes: I have uploaded this 2007 audio from an early morning visit to the studio by Sir Ian McKellen, Sylvester McCoy and Jonathan Hyde, truly the A Team of acting. They were in NZ with the Royal Shakespeare Co, performing King Lear and The Seagull. I took them on some sight seeing around Auckland and after the final show took them to a bar called Shanghai Lils. When I said I had to go to my talkback radio show Ian inquired if they were coming also, and so they did. The callers to the show didn’t really know who the guests were and my co-host Joe, wasn’t making a big deal of it. Highlights include Sylvester playing the spoons while a regular caller, 75yr old “Leggy Peggy” plays a knees up medley on piano. It’s 20mins long but has some great moments! Thanks to the producer Jason Beaumont for having the sense to record it. More..
Our friend and LOTR Alum Actor Bruce Hopkins sends this in regarding his radio program: I had a chat with Mike Foster, who heads the US Tolkien Society and is a Professor of English. During his college days at Marquette University he got into Tolkien and was able to actually use Tolkiens original hand written manuscripts! He tells us how Tolien actually wrote on the back of exam papers and so the reverse side had comments to students with regard their marks etc. We only had 9 minutes to talk, but I will chat with Mike on another show and carry on our Tolkien conversations. More..
Bruce Hopkins writes: This is my down home version of a video card to you all trusting that you will have a wonderful Christmas and a superb 2011, performed without talent but sent with love, much love and happiness to you wherever and whomever you are.
From www.radiolive.co.nz: Bruce Hopkins chats to Michael Regina who along with Kiwi Erica Challis was one of the co-founders of the web site TheOneRing.Net. They were a couple of Tolkien fans who wanted to keep an eye on how the filming of Lord Of The Rings was progressing. Their subsequent website began getting 500,000 hits each day! TORN made history as a marketing tool for the film. Peter Jackson ended up supplying Michael with weekly video diaries of the making of King Kong. More..
Our pal and LOTR star Bruce Hopkins writes: I interviewed Dirk Bartholoma who created and runs the LOTR conventions, RingCon and FedCon in Germany. I also talked with Donna Maloney a long time LOTR enthusiast. Donna was at DragonCon when we had our chat. I also have some interviews I did with people on the first night after the 7.1 earthquake that hit Christchurch last week. The link to these audio clips is here. There are a number of clips up so folks can click through to other pages as they will only see 5 at a time on the home page.
This week’s TORn TUESDAY webcast will be coming to you live from New Zealand. Our own Cliff “Quickbeam” Broadway is in the country right now, and will be chatting with Kiwi actor and radio show host Bruce Hopkins.