The Best Place by the Fire...

Those of you who know what that line is from are a special breed. You select few who have experienced the wonder of Jim Henson's "The Storyteller". For those who don't The Storyteller was a TV series that had a short run in 1988. The Bellands watched it religiously (almost as religiously as Conspiracy of the Yagu). Being 7 years old at the time, I didn't remember much from it, but even now, almost 20 years later, my mind will flash back to images and scenes that I remember watching, and I'll even pull the occasional quote, despite not remembering more than 5 minutes of it.

Anyways, I recently found it on Amazon.com, and decided to get it, not remembering much about it. The good news is the Murloc liked it. Very much, actually. It comes with highest recommendations, and might be good pacification material for children (although maybe not very young children, as there are scary moments and monsters). But that's not the point of this post.

(aside) A while ago, I came across a website called Hey, it's that guy! It was devoted to all those guys whom you saw and recognized from various movies and television shows, but didn't know their names. You know those guys. Like that one guy who played that dude in that movie? You know who I'm talking about?

So while watching through The Storyteller, I came to realize that this show is the biggest collection of "Hey, it's that guy!" people. As we went from one episode to the next, each time an actor would make an appearance, I'd remark to myself "isn't that that guy from that other movie?" And in most cases, it was. It went from being a coincidence at first, to being a creepy phenomenon. Eventually, I couldn't tell whether I was thinking I had seen an actor before simply because I'd seen every other actor before, or because I actually had seen the actor before. In most cases I really had.

So after every episode, I had to go to imdb to look up the actors and sure enough, I'd say "ohmigosh! It is that person!" After several episodes I began to notice a few trends.

1) Every actor who was in The Storyteller, at one point made an appearance in the Mystery! series Poirot.
2) Most actors appeared in other Mystery! series' as well, such as Campion, Lord Peter Wimsey, Rumpole of the Bailey, Cadfael, and Maigret.
3) A sizeable majority of them were also in other shows like Dr. Who, Jeeves and Wooster, and Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Several also appeared in Disney's live action 101 Dalmations.
4) There is a very, very small pool of actors in Great Britain, and they all appear in everything with everyone else. I think every British actor can be linked to every other in a minimum of two degrees.
5) There was a British TV show called "Z Cars" (1962-1978) in which every British actor got his start.

In addition to that, a number of actors (at least one from each of the nine episodes) were particularly remarkable. I've done my best to catalogue them here.

"Hans My Hedgehog"
-Ailsa Berk, played the Grovelhog. Also played Aslan in the BBC production of The Chronicles of Narnia.

"Fearnot"
-Gabrielle Anwar, played Lidia (Fearnot's love). Also played Queen Anne in Disney's The Three Muskateers, Sonora Webster (the female lead) in Wild Hearts Can't be Broken, and Ramandu's daughter in the BBC production of Prince Caspian and Voyage of the Dawn Treader (more on Ramandu later).
-Mark Williams, played Fearnot's Brother. Also played Mr. Arthur Weasley in Harry Potter 2, 3, and 4.

"A Story Short"
-Brenda Blethyn, played the Storyteller's Wife. Also played Mrs. Bennet in last year's Pride & Prejudice.
-Richard Vernon, played the King. Also played Slartibartfast in the BBC TV miniseries production of The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

"The Luck Child"
-Paul Brooke, played the King's evil Chancellor. Also played Malakili, the Rancor keeper, in Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi.
-Robert Eddison, played the Ferryman. Also played the Grail Knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade the following year, then died two years after that at the age of 83.
-Philip Jackson, played the evil King. Also played Chief Inspector Japp in the Mystery! series Poirot.
-Pauline Moran, played the Queen. Also played Miss Lemon in the Mystery! series Poirot.
-Steven Mackintosh, played Lucky. Also played Andreas Tanis in Underworld: Evolution.

"The Soldier and Death"
-Bob Peck, played the Soldier. Also played Robert Muldoon in Jurassic Park and also appeared in an episode of Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

"The True Bride"
-Jane Horrocks, played Anja. Also played the voice of the Black Widow Spider and Mrs. Plum in Corpse Bride, and the voice of Babs in Chicken Run. She also appeared in The Witches and Memphis Belle.
-Sean Bean, played the Prince. Yeah, you read that right. Sean Freakin' Bean. I first saw him in Patriot Games and later Ronin. Of course he was also in Goldeneye, Troy, National Treasure, and (need I mention it?) The Lord of the Rings.
-Alun Armstrong, voice of the Troll. Also appeared in Van Helsing, The Mummy Returns, Sleepy Hollow, Braveheart, and Patiot Games.

"The Three Ravens"
-Jonathan Pryce, played the King. I first saw him playing Elliot Carver (the Ted Turner-esque bad guy) in Tomorrow Never Dies, then later in Ronin, but he is most recently well known for playing Governor Weatherby Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean.
-Miranda Richardson, played the Witch. Also appeared in Empire of the Sun and Sleepy Hollow, and provided the voice for Mrs. Tweedy in Chicken Run. Most recently, she played Rita Skeeter in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
-Joely Richardson, played the Princess. Also played Aunt Charlotte Selton in The Patriot, with Mel Gibson. Also appeared in Bonnie Hunt's romantic comedy Return to Me.
-Interesting point: Joely Richardson was in a movie called "Wetherby" and Miranda Richardson was in a movie called "Swann". Jonathan Pryce played Governer "Weatherby Swann" in Pirates.

"Sapsorrow"
-Geoffrey Bayldon, played the King. Also played Ramandu in the BBC production of Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
-Alison Doody, played Sapsorrow/Scraggletag. Also played (wait for it) Dr. Elsa Schneider in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
-Angus Barnett, played Servant 1. Also played Mullroy (the fat British Soldier) in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.
-Dawn French, played Bad Sister 2. Also played the voice of Mrs. Beaver in last year's production of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and the Fat Lady in the painting in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
-Jennifer Saunders, played Bad Sister 1. Also the voice of the Fairy Godmother in Shrek 2.

"The Heartless Giant"
-Gemma Jones, played the Queen. Also played Madam Pomfrey in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Grace Winslow in The Winslow Boy, and Mrs. Dashwood in Ang Lee's 1995 production of Sense and Sensibility.

Oh yeah, don't let me forget that the Storyteller himself is played by John Hurt, who was in Hellboy, Mr. Ollivander (the wand salesman) in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, somehow ended up in Spaceballs, and was the voice of Aragorn in Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings.

I haven't yet watched The Storyteller: Greek Myths, so I don't know if it will follow the "Hey, it's that guy!" trend. It looks like it's headed in that direction, though, as the Storyteller is played by Michael Gambon, better known as Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potters 3 and 4.