English filmmaker Ian Woodward was formerly a show-business correspondent for Britain's national media and appeared regularly on the BBC as presenter (among others) of Radio 2's Jazz in Britain contributor to Radio 4's Woman's Hour. He is the author of more than 30 books), published in 15 languages (including Arabic and Japanese), among them worldwide best-selling biographies of Hollywood stars Audrey Hepburn and Glenda Jackson. Hollywood director John Landis based "An American Werewolf in London" on Ian Woodward's international best-seller "The Werewolf Delusion". His Audrey Hepburn biography (never out of print since first published) spawned the musical "Fair Lady of the Screen", composed by Bee Gees keyboardist Rudi Dobson and released on CD by President Records. His last six films - "Adoration: A Natural History", "Love Song: The Triumph and Tragedy Of Tchaikovsky", "The Red Rose", "Too Many Ghosts", "Silly Robin" and "From Bohemia's Woods and Fields" - have won 50 international awards and been screened on TV, in theatres and open-air cinemas across the United States, Australia and throughout Europe: nearly 30 countries in all. "Love Song" has just been awarded the prestigious Award of Excellence prize at the 2015 Canada International Film Festival, Vancouver. In 2016 he will be shooting the horror film "The Werewolf Delusion", from an original screenplay based on his book of the same name. He lives with wife Zenka near London in the historical village of Kings Langley.
NORMAN BOWMAN (Rev Jim Watson): Marius in "Les Miserables", Danny Zuko in "Grease", Tony in "West Side Story", Sam Carmichael in ABBA's "Mamma Mia!", Sky Masterson in "Guys and Dolls"...Norman Bowman has played almost every leading song-and-dance man in London's West End and, in Shakespeare, worked alongside Jude Law in "Henry V", appeared as Ross in Kenneth Branagh's highly-acclaimed 2014 production of "Macbeth" and played the Duke of Cornwall in "King Lear" at Manchester's renowned Royal Exchange Theatre. His Hollywood director Mack Sennett in "Mack & Mabel" was hailed as "one of London's outstanding male musical performances of the year". He tells people that he feels blessed, but there is much more behind this modest Scottish artist's rise and rise than meets the eye - and ear. "My role in 'Guys and Dolls'," he says, "led to me appearing on stage with Ewan McGregor, who I became friends with. When Ewan moved on, I was given the lead role of Nathan Detroit and was privileged to play opposite Patrick Swayze." Talent will out. Combine all this with other stellar roles in the musicals "Lady Be Good" at the Open Air Theatre in London's Regents Park, Munkustrap in "Cats", and Billy Bigelow in "Carousel" at the Chichester Festival Theatre, and it becomes very clear why Norman Bowman's name has become synonymous with musical theatre at its best. And yet although the London-based Scots actor-singer from Arbroath may well be a West End superstar there is another side to him which he wishes to explore much, much more: his huge love of Shakespeare. This is why in recent years he's appeared in productions such as "A Midsummer's Night Dream" at the Manchester International Festival, again directed by Kenneth Branagh. In the musical romance "I'll Walk with God", in which he plays American opera-star-turned-vicar Jim Watson, he combines both the stage-musical and the serious straight-acting side of his prodigious talent and charismatic personality. He says: "In the film my character is nicknamed 'The Singing Vicar' because, although he's left America and the world of opera for a new life as a priest in England, he has never lost his love of singing - his need to sing. This is Heaven for me!"
VIRGINIA BYRON (Emma Crawford): Virginia Byron's appearances at London's prestigious Lost Theatre Company - a venue which introduced actors such as Ralph Fiennes and Mackenzie Crook to the drama stage - have won her much acclaim. In "Proud", about a deeply troubled 18-year-old boxer named Lewis, one critic enthused: "Virginia Byron, as Lewis' mother, stole the show, delivering an incredible number of witty lines with impeccable timing". Another critic noted: "Virginia Byron is excellent as the family matriarch, switching from high drama to high comedy in seconds." This observation, in fact, might be describing Virginia's own secure place in the world of acting for she seems to oscillate with consummate ease between comedy and drama. Be it playing Liz Essendine in "Present Laughter" or Ruth Condamine in "Blithe Spirit", in two of Noel Coward's best comic plays, she is at her comedic best. And in 2015 this year she extended her talent into the realms of farce when she starred as Jean Perkins in Ray Cooney's classic 'Funny Money' at The Dugdale Centre in North London. But she is equally known for her London appearances in the works of Samuel Beckett. In fact, she has played most of the Irish avant-garde playwright's female characters including Mouth in "Not I" for a No1 tour of Ireland, the mistress in "Play", the assistant director in "Catastrophe" at Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre, and May in both "Footfalls" and "Rockaby".
To cap it all, she is an accomplished Shakespearean actress with such roles behind her as Gertrude, Queen of Denmark and the Danish prince's mother, in a UK tour of "Hamlet". She's also toured as Olivia in "Twelfth Night" and Lady Macbeth in "Macbeth". Along the way, she's played Elizabeth Woodville, Queen consort of England (whose children included the Princes in the Tower) - as the spouse of King Edward IV from 1464 until his death in 1483 - in the hit BBC2 series "The Real White Queen and Her Rivals". Although a native Northerner, she spent several childhood years in France and has a base in the Alps where she loves to ski. She also enjoys target shooting with 2.2 rifles. Now, to round everything off, she has relished the chance to portray Emma Crawford, a university music lecturer with terminal illness, in the film-musical drama "I'll Walk with God". She says: "It's not just my first film musical, but my first musical, full stop. Even though my character doesn't get to sing, I found myself being sucked in by the glorious music that I heard swirling around the set during rehearsals and filming. But be warned, this is a weepy, so have plenty of tissues ready!"
CLAIRE HEVERIN (Holly Watson): In her early 20s, Claire Heverin has already packed much into her career...starred as the Athenian girl Hermia in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and as Snail in Karel Capek's stage satire "The Insect Play"(both at London's Courtyard Theatre), and played Emmott in Don Taylor's historical drama about the Great Plague that swept Britain in the 17th century, The Roses of "Eyam". Claire, who comes from a dance background and has training in stage combat, has also won critical plaudits for her playing of the spiteful and bitter daughter, Magdalena, in Lorca's "The House of Bernarda Alba". Two weeks before starting rehearsals for "I'll Walk with God" she completed a London run in "Neighbourhood Watch", Alan Ayckbourn's hilarious cautionary tale of the dangers of taking the law into your own hands. "When I first read the script of 'I'll Walk with God', and the screenwriter's description of Holly Watson, it quickly dawned on me just how much I had in common with her," she recalls. "Like Holly, I too had part of my early education at a local Church of England school. And, like her, I went on to get a degree in acting. I love this quality in Holly where she's 'older' in personality than her years might suggest and yet she still retains her innocence. It's not often you get the chance to polar a character with such a similar history. I just knew when I auditioned for the role that I could bring a lot of my own experiences, and a lot of my own dedication, to this role."