Neil Media Watch

Last updated 9^th December 1998

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

1998

11th Dec 1998:OK! Magazine. Cover picture of Neil with Ulrika Johnson where Neil looks like a hamster. Inside picture with Neil looking more normal in a group photo. The event was the London Lighthouse appeal broadcast 28^th November on Channel 4. Neil is mentioned in dispatches as spending an extra long shift on the phones taking pledges.
6th Dec 1998:Mail on Sunday. Picture of Neil plus the usual generic information. In connection with DtDD's last broadcast.
30th Oct 1998: OK! Magazine. Picture of Neil attending the Velvet Goldmine premiere in London. Neil is a sucker for Glam Rock.
24th Oct 1998: Neil spotted at the Placebo concert at the Brixton Academy in London.
24th Oct 1998: Listings magazines (all of them practically!). Publicity for the final series of Drop the Dead Donkey. TV Quick is esp. good. A rather lovely pin-up picture.
12th Oct 1998:Inside Soap magazine. Lovely pin-up picture and generic information; promoting DtDD.
30th Aug 1996: The Observer Review section, page 9. Neil attended the Edinburgh Festival. He has started a new career as a film critic for The Observer...And he isn't reviewing The Avengers, thats for sure....
6th Aug 1998: Daily Mail Dempter's Diary. Neil is reported as dumping Marie!
11th July 1998:Now! Magazine. A picture of Marie and Neil sharing a joke at Vivienne Westwood's Perfume launch party. Probably laughing at one of her outfits.
1st July 1998: Hello magazine. Picture of Neil and Marie Helvin in public together at the Six Days and Seven Nights movie premiere. Both look gorgeous. I hope I look like her when I'm in my forties. Actually I'd like to look like her now. Neil looks scrummy of course.
14th May 1998: Daily Express Hickey column and Daily Mail Dempster's Diary. Neil meets Marie Helvin at a party (presumably the night before) celebrating the new musical Rent. She arrived with Salman Rushdie and left with Neil. The attraction was electric apparently (and why wouldn't it be!!). A 'friend' said they had been seeing one another for a short while on the quiet. There is hope for us all...she must be in her forties by now. Mind you she was a super model, so that probably gives her advantage over you and me.
19th April 1998: Late Lunch, broadcast 6pm on Channel 4. A late booking, hence the poor advertising. Haven't seen it yet, but my copy has arrived...thank you Ian T!
29th Mar 1998: The Clive James Show, broadcast 10.30pm, ITV. Good interview: Neil reveals details of his worse audition for a part in Starlight Express (what was he thinking?) and they show a brilliant excerpt of The Submariners where Neil is dancing and singing in drag. Those legs...
5th Mar 1998: Now magazine, article including groovy picture and reference to these web pages!
28th Feb-6th Mar 1998: TV Times; small piece in gossip section about Neil's satellite dish being trashed by cows *again* (must have been a comment at the press launch) and...these web pages URL!!
23rd Feb 1998: Lawrence Olivier Theatre Awards, BBC2; presented award for the best actress to Zoe Wannamaker; Very short and sweet, but also introduced as being in Closer in its transfer. He looked pretty damn good!
22nd Feb 1998: Front cover picture on Mail on Sunday's TV Guide.
21st Feb 1998: Articles in TV Times and Radio Times promoting Heaven on Earth. Groovy pictures.
20th Feb 1998: Daily Mirror; same piece as Daily Mail 13/2/98. He also attended Tartuffe at the Richmond theatre with most of the DtDD team (Stephen Tompkinson is in it) and they all went onto a party afterwards. Neil is reported by my spies as being with Susannah Doyle again...
20th Feb 1998: OK! Issue 98; Neil attends the London premiere of As Good As It Gets with a mystery lady friend (see above).

19th Feb 1998: The Independent, Eye section; interview about Heaven on Earth and stuff, including picture of Neil standing in a flamingo pond in the the Kensington Roof Gardens six fllors above Kensington High Street. Its where the press screening/launch was held.
13th Feb 1998: Daily Mail, small piece about Neil filming Heaven On Earth in Wales and cows trampling his satellite dish. The dish was there for the England-Italy world cup qualifying match.

6th Feb 1998: OK! Issue 96; Neil attends the West End launch party of Little Havana Bar with a bunch of people from The Bill and London'd Burning. Bit B-List. Nice picture of him with Joe McGann (see piccie).

1997

30th July 1997: PM Tony Blair's Luvvy Luv-In at Downing Street...our Neil is on the list although Noel Gallagher hogs the news;

From 5th July 1997: Drop the Dead Donkey Season 2 is being transmitted on Channel 4, Saturdays at 10pm.

22nd June 1997: The Works, BBC2, 8.50pm; Neil is the narrator. I'd spot that voice anywhere!

6th June 1997: OK! Issue 62 reports on the 1997 L'Oreal Colour Trophy Awards (thats hair stuff if you don't know...) at the Grosvenor, and Neil presented an award. Picture shows his cheekbones nicely (the result of a Native American ancestor on his mother's side, apparently) though his hair looks like it could have done with a cut. The winning salon was Harington's of Maidenhead if you give a toss.

26th May 1997: Radio Times issue covering 31st May-6th June; Neil comes out in the top 3 of the Radio Times poll of sexist man on TV. David Duchovny wins. Gorgeous full page pin-up picture in the "Everyones talking about..." section. Someone really fancies him in the Radio Times office...he is always in!

June/July 1997: Neil appears twice (both with pictures) in the 2nd issue of the specialist TV magazine "the Box". He is in a piece recommending See You Friday, but he is also voted 11th Coolest Televisual Dude in their top 50 Coolest Dudes. He beats Fox Mulder, The Prisoner and Angus Deayton but is beaten by Dylan from the Magic Roundabout, Jeremy Paxman and Mr Benn. Fair enough.

3rd May-9th May 1997: Neil in all the TV Listing Mags with small pieces on See You Friday. TV Times is the best!

5th May 1997: Neil mentioned in amusing piece about the Montreaux TV Festival in The Guardian's Media Section.

29th April 1997: Neil presented the BAFTA Award for the Best TV Actress (BBC 1)...lovely picture in Hello! magazine No. 457 (May 10th 97) and NOW! magazine.

Aprilish 1997 : At sometime around here Neil was a guest on the Jack Docherty Show on Channel 5, promoting Fever Pitch. Damn! Missed it!

4th April 1997: TV interview promoting Fever Pitch on This Morning (ITV). On Light Lunch (C4) with Ben Elton, though Neil can't get a word in edgeways.

26th March 1997: Radio 5 interview about Fever Pitch and a whole lot more. Good interview with lots of info.

15th March 1997: a full-page interview in The Guardian where Neil spoke in support of the Equity's threatened boycott of subsidised rep. unless management agree to a minimum wage of 250 GBP. Neil also attended the press conference on the dispute earlier in the week. Great, huge picture too!! Equity have since won the dispute.

Agent

Neil can be contacted through his agent:
ICM
Oxford House
Oxford Street
London W1N 0AX
tel: 0171 636 6565

While I've been doing this I've learnt a lot about getting hold of videos, old newspaper articles, radio broadcasts I missed etc. I'm collecting this stuff together and you can share and contribute by clicking here.

All this information is publicly available. The Drop The Dead Donkey and Between The Lines episode guides are from the Tardis Archive, but as that seems to be in a state of flux they will (eventually) be replicated and updated locally.