About...The Fanlistings
A fanlisting makes no secrets about what it truly is, it is just that, a listing of fans. As TheFanlistings.org put it, it is "an online list of fans of a subject, such as a TV show, actor, or musician, that is created by an individual and open for fans from around the world to join. There are no costs, and the only requirements to join a fanlisting are your name and country." See how simple it is? Brilliant in it's simplicity. This fanlisting in particular is for the actor Paul McGann. Read on if you wish to know more about him.
About...Paul McGann
Born November 14, 1959 in Surrey, England, Paul is the second eldest of 4 brothers and one sister. Although, born in Surrey, he was raised in Liverpool and it has been said that the McGann brothers were the second 'Fab Four' to come from there, The Beatles of course, being the first. With his brothers Joe, Mark and Stephen they formed the music group The McGanns and even released a pop single entitled "Shame About The Boy".
Paul's 'big break' came in the form of the 1986 television series "The Monocled Mutineer" where he played the title role, Percy Toplis. 1987 saw Paul acting alongside fellow newcomer, Richard E Grant, in the British cult film, Withnail & I, where they played two out-of-work actors who decide to take a holiday to "rejuvenate". Paul played the character Marwood, or "I" to Grant's Withnail. That same year, Paul could also be seen in Steven Speilberg's war drama, Empire of the Sun with Christian Bale and John Malkovich. Then came an adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's The Rainbow, 1992's Alien 3 (where his scenes were mostly cut), another adaptation of Dumas' Three Musketeers with Keifer Sutherland and Charlie Sheen, and "The Hanging Gale" a 1995 mini-series about survival in 1846 Ireland during the potato famine in which he acted alongside his three real brothers. He also made appearances in other television serials, most notably "Catherine the Great" with Catherine Zeta-Jones and "The Merchant of Venice".
With the new year came a new role for our Paul, in the eight incarnation of the beloved British character The Doctor. The Doctor Who movie was to be a rebirth of a seemingly dead franchise, a "joint venture" between the BBC, Univeral and Fox in the hopes that the movie would do well and they could begin a new television series in which Paul would star as the Time Lord. However, this wasn't meant to be. It pulled in great numbers in Britain, but couldn't seem to find it's viewers in the United States, so the idea was dropped. He did have the honour of remaining the Doctor until they signed on Chris Eccleston for the new 2005 series, making him one of the two "longest-running Doctors". Even though he can't be seen as The Doctor, he can be heard playing the role on several audio books and audio plays that are available in the United Kingdom and the United States. Along these same lines, Paul was also originally cast in the lead role of Richard Sharpe in Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series, but was injured early in the production and was replaced by current Sharpe actor, Sean Bean. Paul has done several audio versions of Cornwell's novels since.
The late 90's brought several more notable projects, namely, a lovely adaptation of Charles Dickens' last novel, "Our Mutual Friend" in which McGann played the rakish Eugene Wrayburn, an idle, but worthy suitor. The new century brought even more roles, including the part of David Talbot in Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned and my personal favourite, Lieutenant William Bush in the Horatio Hornblower series where he acted alongside other favourite Brits, Ioan Gruffudd, Jamie Bamber, and Robert Lindsay. Since then he's appeared in an episode of "Poirot", "Twisted Tales", "Sea of Souls", "Marple" and the excellent BBC crime drama "If I Had You". Shortly he will be seen in the film Poppies.
About...This Fanlisting
The first place I ever really remember seeing Paul McGann, and knowing that's who he was, was in the Hornblower series. I had seen him in The Three Musketeers years previous, but didn't realise it, or didn't care? (how sad!) I managed to catch him in the Doctor Who movie only this year and well, the rest as they say, is history. I guess liking one certain character so much sort of endears you to the actor, that is, as long as they do the character justice. And Paul did justice to the Doctor. Since then I've been more aware of movies and television programs he's done and have managed to see most of them. Paul's a brilliant actor, and I could listen to him talk all day long, so why not make a fanlisting? Choosing a name for the fanlisting was rather difficult, as you may guess, so I went back and read several older articles at the McGann Library to help me along. Many of them made mention of how he is a private person and wishes to stay that way, in fact, he'd rather the public knew nothing of him at all really. This of course, only makes them more interesting so I chose the word mystique which according to Hyper Dictionary, means an aura of heightened value or interest or meaning surrounding a person or thing [n]. Fits doesn't it? So there you have it, a brief history of Mr McGann and a brief history of his fanlisting.
