Catherine Cookson The Gambling Man Synopsis

1. Catherine Cookson The Gambling Man Synopsis Book
2. Catherine Cookson The Gambling Man Synopsis Series

The Gambling Man (TV Mini-Series 1995– ) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Catherine Cookson (1906-1998) was an English author of historical fiction novels and the author of the Mary Ann Shaughnessy series. She grew up the illegitimate daughter of an impoverished woman named Kate, whom she was led to believe was her older sister.

The Gambling Man is a British three-part television serial, or long TV movie, first broadcast in 1995, starring Robson Green, directed by Norman Stone, based on a novel by Catherine Cookson.

Outline[edit]

Rory Connor (Robson Green) is a rent-collector on Tyneside with a passion for playing poker for high stakes, while Janie Waggett (Stephanie Putson) is the woman who loves him, standing by him through many troubles. Charlotte Kean (Sylvestra Le Touzel) is Connor's employer, and she too finds him attractive. He gets into bad company in the dark world of gambling, and is so sure that poker is his way to riches that he makes a terrible decision.^[1]

The plot may be partly autobiographical, as Catherine Cookson’s own father was a bigamist and a gambler.^[2]

Production[edit]

Producer Ray Marshall bought the film rights to several of the period works of Catherine Cookson, beginning in 1989 with The Fifteen Streets, which had been turned into a successful stage play. These productions, sponsored by Tyne Tees Television, were very popular and drew between ten and fourteen million viewers each.^[3]

Cast[edit]

• Robson Green as Rory Connor
• Stephanie Putson as Janie Waggett
• Ian Cullen as Paddy Connor
• David Nellist as Jimmy Connor
• Sylvestra Le Touzel as Charlotte Kean
• Bernard Hill as Frank Nickle
• Sammy Johnson as Victor Pittie
• David Haddow as John George Armstrong
• John Middleton as Mr Buckham
• Frank Mills as Mr Kean
• Ron Donachie as Alec McLean
• Peter Marshall as Chief Constable
• Alan Mason as Mr Dryden
• Richard Franklin as Gambler
• T. R. Bowen as Mr Arden
• Jean Southern as Mrs Tyler
• Paul Colman as Gambler
• Max Smith as Bill Waggett
• Anne Kent as Lizzie O'Dowd
• Dennis Lingard as Little Joe
• Allen Mechen as Dan Pittie
• Ron Senior Jr. as Sam Pittie
• Amber Styles as Ruth Connor
• Margery Bone as Maggie Ridley
• Lyn Douglas as Grannie Waggett
• Sarah Finch as Mrs Buckham
• Joe Ging as Dr Munday
• Johnny Caesar as Mr Grable
• Jan Gordon as Woman at Wedding
• Tony Hodge as Oakshott
• Jim Killeen as Man at Gaming House
• Anissa Ladjemi as Widow's Child
• George Lavella as Look-Out Boy
• Peter Marriner as Police Sergeant
• Nick Nancarrow as Nipper
• Bryan St. John as Older Policeman

Notes[edit]

1. ^5 REASONS WHY YOU MIGHT NOT ROOT FOR ROBSON IN THE GAMBLING MAN at uktv.co.uk, accessed 8 May 2020
2. ^16 facts about Dame Catherine Cookson on her 110th birthday in Shields Gazette, 27 June 2016, archived here
3. ^Julie Anne Taddeo, ed., Catherine Cookson Country: On the Borders of Legitimacy, Fiction, and History (Routledge, 2016), p. 172

External links[edit]

• The Gambling Man on IMDb
• The Gambling Man (Part 1) full episode at dailymotion.com

Catherine Cookson sagas tend to be plotted in a conventional way. They take the time to set up the characters and then follow them through their various misadventures, the themes unfolding slowly and clearly. But things are very different with The Secret, which begins decades before the real story, right in the middle of a darkly mysterious scene (a boy is given money by a frantic man while a woman gives birth nearby) and then cuts forwards in time without any explanation. We're left chomping at the bit to find out more about our hero Freddie Musgrave and his shady past, but we have to be patient because the story will unexpectedly go back and forth in time to reveal the truth bit by bit.

Catherine Cookson The Gambling Man Synopsis Book

Conflict features in every Cookson story, but while the villains can be nasty, they're usually people we can recognise from everyday reality. Think stern, overly controlling fathers, bitterly vengeful servants, scheming businessmen, power-hungry wives, or common street crooks. The Secret is very different. Its main villain is a flamboyant monster of a man whose twisted motivations and mood swings make him seem more like the baddie from a Hollywood thriller or horror film than the usual, down-to-earth Cookson adversary. We won't say who he is in case you've not watched it yet, but rest assured you'll almost want to boo and hiss whenever he's on screen, particularly during the pulse-pounding finale.

A term popularized by movie maestro Alfred Hitchcock, a MacGuffin is an object which exists in a story only to motivate the characters and drive the plot forwards. The identity of the object itself is actually irrelevant - it's just the spark that gets the story going. MacGuffins turn up in lots of thrillers (often in the form of a secret treasure, a mysterious briefcase, or a missing microfilm), but not so much in Cookson dramas. And yet The Secret gives us a proper MacGuffin in the form of a stash of rare diamonds which turn up out of the blue to excite and perturb various characters, including our hero Freddie Musgrave and dodgy criminal Mr Freeman. Its existence is a tell-tale sign that we're squarely in thriller territory.

Catherine Cookson The Gambling Man Synopsis Series

Well, it's action-packed by Catherine Cookson standards anyway. While you do see characters come to blows in plenty of her sagas, The Secret has an unusual emphasis on physical drama and dynamic action sequences right from the start, whether we're seeing young Freddie running swift errands for his criminal bosses and freeing a child from captivity, or a sudden murder being frantically covered up, or Belle being imprisoned like a damsel in a gothic fairy tale. The fight scenes are directed with heart-thumping impact, while the closing moments will have you perched on the edge of the sofa. Who knew Catherine Cookson could be like this?