Bryan Hands

Actor, Director, Writer -

[Bryan Hands @bryanhands]

MINUTE TAKER - Lead You Home (Official Music Video) https://t.co/jH77QKLrsF via @YouTube

[Colin Spencer @ColinSpenc4257]

How many do you Remember.

[Bryan Hands @bryanhands]

The next health secretary must commit to stopping the Conservative policy of using NHS funds to pay private hospitals. Can you join the @organisehq campaign now? https://t.co/hj1tj8V2pV

[Bryan Hands @bryanhands]

I condemn all violence and will not stand by while Palestinian and Israeli civilians pay the price for political failure. Please sign Oxfam's petition and make your voice heard. https://t.co/op8HfAy0Jl

[The RSC @TheRSC]

‘He came straight from hospital to the read through of Home, I’m Darling, determined to say hello in spite of severe ill health, brimming with enthusiasm, clearly overjoyed to be in the room. The world will be a duller place without him’

Tamara Harvey, Co-Artistic Director (3/3)

[Bryan Hands @bryanhands]

@TheOtherPalace Deeply saddened to hear the news.

[National Theatre @NationalTheatre]

We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Bill Kenwright.

[Bill Kenwright Ltd @BKL_Productions]

Jenny Seagrove, Lucy Kenwright & everyone at BKL are devastated to share the sad news of the loss of a beloved Partner, Father, Grandfather and friend: Bill Kenwright CBE.

[CameronMackintoshLtd @CamMackLtd]

The world of British Theatre without Bill Kenwright seems impossible.

[Newcastle Theatre Royal @TheatreRoyalNew]

A message from Newcastle Theatre Royal.

[Bryan Hands @bryanhands]

@springmeister Deepest sympathy, I have many happy memories of working for Bill some years ago. A great loss to theatre.

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

A British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read:

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”

-Nate White

[Caroline Lucas @CarolineLucas]

Rent-a-Minister Grant Shapps embodies Government chaos. He’s held 5 different cabinet posts in past 12 months. Transport, Home, BEIS, Energy, and now Defence. This govt is a desperate scrambled cohort of failure & an election to get rid of the lot of them can’t come soon enough

[Bryan Hands @bryanhands]

I've just emailed train operators in England, telling them to keep our ticket offices open! Can you join in too on @organisehq? https://t.co/Jcae9LMaH7

[colin john mills @colinjohnmills1]

@bryanhands lovely to see great work on car share.

[Minute Taker @Minute_Taker]

Massive thank you to everyone involved in making my 'Lead You Home' video, especially Director/Producer @Lochers, co-producer/sound designer @OKJAMESREMIX, DOP Matthew Lewis & the actors @solly_mcleod, @bryanhands & Suki Jones 🙏 Ben x

RESULTS HERE 👇
https://t.co/sIE7F1gEhx

[MichaelMITCHKnight @mtchknght8]

Quite the touching-tres poignant-evening
The kindness sensitivity & thoughtfulness of others(on here)+marvellous news on the work front,&finally-chance discovered a colleague of Dad(@bryanhands for whom I’ve affectionate adolescent memories)is still knocking around & on here too