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other news

current news…

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What Rupert is up to…

Rupert is:

  • a guest at the convention German Castle Con in Solingen, Germany on 24-25 August 2019. Website: germancastlecon.com
  • a guest at the convention Myth & Magic in Birmingham, England on 17-19 April 2020, along with fellow Merlin alumni Emilia Fox (Morgause), Fintan McKeown (King Odin), Michelle Ryan (Nimueh) and Alex Vlahos (Mordred). For more info see the event’s website and Twitter feed: phoenixconventions.co.uk; twitter.com/PhoenixConsUK. update: This event was to have taken place in Blackpool in September 2019, but has been postponed due to a change in location. update: Unfortunately Rupert will no longer be able to attend this convention. Alex and the other Merlin actors will be there, though!
  • appearing as Marcus in the film The Secret Garden, with Colin Firth as Lord Archibald Craven and Julie Walters as Mrs Medlock. Discovered via Rupert’s page at his agency! IMDB page for the film. No news on release dates yet, though Rupert indicated it would be late 2019. update: IMDB lists it as being released in April 2020.

Please follow our Twitter account for this site: @withlove70ways!

The following entries have been updated:

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other news

other news

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14 July 2019: Rupert was to have been a guest at the convention Myth & Magic in Birmingham, England on 17-19 April 2020, along with fellow Merlin alumni Emilia Fox (Morgause), Fintan McKeown (King Odin), Michelle Ryan (Nimueh) and Alex Vlahos (Mordred). Unfortunately Rupert will no longer be able to attend this convention. Alex and the other Merlin actors will be there, though!

25 April 2019: Rupert was to have been a guest at the convention Magic Con to be held in Bonn, Germany on 26-28 April 2019, along with Alex Vlahos (Mordred in Merlin). Unfortunately, Rupert had to cancel with short notice, due to “a new filming role”.

5 December 2018: Rupert was to have been a guest at the convention Highway to Albion in Paris on 26 January 2019. Unfortunately the event was cancelled due to low ticket sales. Alas and alack!!!

19 September 2018: Rupert was to have attended the convention MCM Comic Con Scotland in Glasgow on 22-23 September 2018, along with Merlin’s Alex Vlahos (Mordred). Unfortunately, Rupert had to cancel with short notice, due to a change in rehearsal schedule for Twelfth Night. He sent his sincere apologies.

22 June 2018: Rupert was the first guest announced as attending Celtic Reminders, a Merlin convention to be held in Paris on 13-14 October 2018. Unfortunately, however, this event has now been cancelled.

4 June 2015: Justin Young’s play In My Father’s Words is featuring in Brits Off Broadway! It runs from 4-28 June 2015 at 59E59 Theaters in New York. For more details, check the 59E59 website.

30 November 2014: Unfortunately Rupert couldn’t attend Wales Comic Con 2014 Part 2 in Wrexham on Sunday 30 November. It seems this was because he went to the Supanova conventions in Australia in lieu of Eoin Macken and Alex Vlahos.

19 June 2014: Rupert’s brother Justin Young wrote a play titled In My Father’s Words which was performed at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow on 19-28 June 2014, before touring Scotland throughout July. See the Dundee Rep Ensemble page for full details.

theatre

Plenty (2019)

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Rupert is the character Codename Lazar in this production of David Hare’s play Plenty, at the Chichester Festival Theatre from 7 to 29 June 2019. The director is Kate Hewitt, and Rachael Stirling plays the lead character Susan Traherne.

Reviews

5 stars from Gary Naylor for Broadway World UK: Rachael Stirling holds the narrative together, her Susan frightened, ecstatic, cruel, seductive, charming and charmless. She’s never at ease, the old espionage agent’s compulsive desire to look over the shoulder of the person to whom one is speaking, both a literal and metaphorical compulsion.

Amongst the fine support, Yolanda Kettle shines as would-be artist Alice, the dilettante surrogate daughter, whose on-off emotional, sexual and financial dependency on Susan appeals to her fantasy of replaying the rescue scene in the forest over and over again.

4 stars from Michael Billington for The Guardian: Rachael Stirling is excellent in Kate Hewitt’s invigorating production of a play about individual and national unease.

4 stars from Ian Murray for WhatsOnStage: Some will no doubt see Plenty as a dissection of madness, yet it is more than that. It is the question of what someone will do to be truly free regardless of the consequences.

4 stars from Dominic Cavendish for The Telegraph (registration / paywall): Rachael Stirling triumphs as a fearless Bond-like figure in David Hare revival. …

Rachael Stirling gives us no cute, idealised portrait of bravery: the character’s trembling need kindles reciprocal ardour in Rupert Young’s insouciant-acting stranger (Code name Lazar); in their embrace lies the adrenal romance of wartime.

“The fact that you could meet someone for an hour or two and see the very best of them and then move on. Can you understand?” she [later] tells a diplomat called Brock …

Phil Hewitt for Chichester Observer: There are fine moments in Kate Hewitt’s revival, and she’s assembled a fine cast; but it’s difficult to believe that this is David Hare at his best or even a David Hare particularly worth revisiting.

2 stars from Dominic Maxwell for The Sunday Times (paywall): Meaty main role ends up overcooked in revival of modern classic.

Matt Merritt for The Portsmouth News: Rachael Stirling gives a fine performance in the leading role; building to eruptions of grief, purposely baiting Brock’s bosses over Suez. She’s never really served by the material though. It doesn’t help that some of her most important dialogue is thrown away as a recording to cover a scene change.

This, we’re told, is a modern classic. For the life of me I have no idea why and the hard work of the cast can do nothing to dissuade me.

4 stars from Tim Walker for The New European: On the surface, this is an incredibly stylish piece of theatre complete with great recreations of ambassadorial black tie dinner parties and parachute jumps into enemy territory. Nina Dunn’s video design is superb with its moody images of Stirling projected on to the walls, and, at the end, the whole stage opens up as much as the characters.

On a deeper level, it amounts to a timely full-blown exercise in psycho-analysis for the nation, and it asks a question pertinent to our times: what ultimately have we got, when we take away the occasional historic moments of unity and acts of heroism, to bind us all together? In short, who are we? I’m honestly not sure any more.

random

school years

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We already knew that Rupert attended Pangbourne College in Berkshire during the academic years 1991-96, with mentions of his skills in (field) hockey and acting. Delightfully, though, the College has now digitised its annual magazine, The Log, and made it publicly available online – and so we are gifted with some more lovely details about our favourite young man.

If these magazines only provided a few dry facts, I would probably not cross the line and share them here. However, there are a couple of absolutely adorable anecdotes included – and while Rupert earned himself a negative remark or two early on, the whole story ends very happily indeed.

So, in the hopes that no one will mind too much, I hereby present the relevant excerpts.

1991-92, age 13

[The following “Young” may or may not be our Rupert, but chances are that he would have been in the Chapel Choir, and it does feel rather irresistibly like him! There was another student as well as a teacher or housemaster named Young, hence the need for disambiguation.]

The Italian Jobby

What a wonderful idea; combine a choir and brass group tour with a little culture in the company of some Lower Sixth Art Historians. Seduced by thoughts of Vivaldi, Gabrielli and Purcell blending with Botticelli, Brunelleschi and Michelangelo, a troupe of some 47 musicians, culture vultures and camp followers set off for Dover and parts foreign. …

The electric keyboard sounded more like a harpsichord as the evening progressed with La P doing her stuff and McVittie, Young (the thin, beardless, musical variety) and Gummer were in equally fine voice. It was especially good to hear Simpson finally being supported by the tenors he had abused, cajoled and at last convinced to open their mouths when singing and not just when eating.

Volti Subito

[That pseudonym is divine in this context. It’s a musical direction meaning “turn the page quickly”.]

The Rugby Club, U 14 ‘B’ XV

After such a successful and enjoyable season it would be more fitting to look back at the players involved with the glory of a happily balanced side than to reflect on the highlights of autumn. …

Now looking forward we see a pack seething with spirit, keen to block, keen to drive, and always keen for ball. In the front row we had a specialist hooker in C. Young (we will not mention fine-outs) who was propped up by two valiant players in R. Young, the captain, and Davidson, both of whom would have preferred to play in the back row. They were very obviously worried about looking like a familiar Scottish biologist but were reassured when told that it took years to end up like him and that one term would do them no harm. …

This [a miracle transformation] is actually true of the whole side. After they had got down to basics and learnt how good discipline can be effective they became a stylishly professional side which deserved the success it enjoyed.

Well played!

T.J.C.R. / P.G.S. 

Continue reading school years →

appearances

MCM Comic Con, Birmingham (2019)

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BBC Merlin was well represented at the MCM Comic Con, held in Birmingham on 23-24 March 2019. Guests included Asa Butterfield (young Mordred), Tom Hopper (Percival), Alex Vlahos (older Mordred) and our own Rupert Young.

Unfortunately I couldn’t attend the con (having been exiled to the Antipodes) but my mate Shell did, along with her lovely family. They asked Rupert ♥ for an autograph for me, which was awesome! Thanks to my friends, I was definitely there in spirit.

Shell blogged about the day on her site The Copper River. This includes photos, and a link to the official live stream so that we can all enjoy the panel held on Saturday.

Thank you again, Shell!

random

Some things never change…

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“So today….this happened. Some things never change. My love for these boys is one of those things.” Tom Hopper

Tom Hopper posted this image of the BBC Merlin peeps to Instagram on 18 January 2019. From left to right: our Rupert (Leon); Bradley James (Arthur); Eoin Macken (Gwaine); Tomiwa Edun (Elyan); and Tom (Percival).

Eoin Macken also posted it to Instagram, in black and white:

“It isn’t often that it happens and we all manage to get together but when we do it’s great, seeing all these beautiful men in the same room, and it’s the exact same as always, never changes. (I couldn’t put a vignette filter on this photo cos @tom.hopperhops & @rupertfyoung are still too tall) #merlin” Eoin Macken

Bradley also posted the image to Instagram, with the message “You can tell this was taken having just eaten as @tom.hopperhops is smiling. Always a joy getting the squad back together”.

It also appeared on Tomiwa’s Instagram account, with the message, “Gettin’ the band back together. Feel the #magic!”